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PHILADELPHIA 

1854 




Hippincotfs 

Cahinrt llstoriM of \)^t Itatrs, 



TENNESSEE. 



THE 



HISTORY OF TEMESSEE, 



€u\ml Milmnt tn tjiB ^rmnt 'finrt 



BY 

w. H. "carpenter. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
LIPPINCOTT, GRAMBO & CO. 

1854. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 

T . S. ARTHUR a to W. H. CARPENTER, 

in the Clerk's OfiBce of the District Court of the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 



STEREOTYPED BT L. JOHNSON AND CO. 
PHILADELPHIA. 



F4it. 



6? ' ' 



PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. 



There are but few persons in this country who 
have notj at some time or other, felt the want of an 
accurate, well written, concise, yet clear and reliable 
history of their own or some other state. 

The want here indicated is now about being sup- 
plied ; and, as the task of doing so is no light or 
superficial one, the publishers have given into the 
hands of the two gentlemen whose names appear in 
the title-page, the work of preparing a series of Cabi- 
net Histories, embracing a volume for each state in 
the Union. Of their ability to perform this well, we 
need not speak. They are no strangers in the literary 
world. What they undertake the public may rest 
assured will be performed thoroughly ; and that no 
sectarian, sectional, or party feelings will bias their 
judgment, or lead them to violate the integrity of 
history. 

The importance of a series of state histories like 
those now commenced, can scarcely be estimated. 
Being condensed as carefully as accuracy and interest 
of narrative will permit, the size and price of the 
volumes will bring them within the reach of every 
family in the country, thus making them home-read- 
ing books for old and young. Each individual will, 

1* 5 



6 publishers' preface. 

in consequence, become familiar, not only with the 
history of his own state, but with that of other states : 
— thus mutual interest will be re-awakened, and old 
bonds cemented in a firmer union. 

In this series of Cabinet Histories, the authors, 
while presenting a concise but accurate narrative of 
the domestic policy of each state, will give greater 
prominence to the personal history of the people. 
The dangers which continually hovered around the 
early colonists ; the stirring romance of a life passed 
fearlessly amid peril; the incidents of border war- 
fare; the adventures of hardy pioneers; the keen 
watchfulness, the subtle surprise, the ruthless attack, 
and prompt retaliation — all these having had an im- 
portant influence upon the formation of the American 
character, are to be freely recorded. While the progres- 
sive development of the citizens of each individual state 
from the rough forest-life of the earlier day to the 
polished condition of the present, will exhibit a pic- 
ture of national expansion as instructing as it is inte- 
resting. 

The size and style of the series will be uniform 
with the present volume. The authors, who have 
been for some time collecting and arranging materials, 
will furnish the succeeding volumes as rapidly as their 
careful preparation will warrant. 



PREFACE, 



Perhaps the history of no State in the Union 
contains more events of romantic interest than 
that of Tennessee. Settled originally by a 
rough border population, surrounded by vindic- 
tive and subtle enemies, upon whose territory 
they had established themselves in defiance of 
opposition and in contempt of danger, the long 
and bloody wars which followed encroachments 
repeatedly renewed have no parallel except in 
the annals of Kentucky. Yet this sturdy peo- 
ple, separated from the older States by inter- 
vening mountains, not only sustained themselves 
as-ainst the incessant assaults of their adversa- 

o 

ries, but righted their own wrongs, assisted to 
repel invasion, and finally evolved order and 
prosperity out of tumult and disaster. 



PREFACE. 



Possessing more than ordinary facilities for 
blending the science of manufactures with the 
pursuits of agriculture, it is not difficult to ima- 
gine the future greatness of a state so happily 
situated both as respects fertility of soil and 
variety of climate. At the present period, as 
the following pages will show, Tennessee ranks 
first among the States of the Union in the value 
of her domestic fabrics, fourth in the production 
of Indian corn, and fifth in the scale of popu- 
lation. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I. 

Romantic character of Spanish adventure — The Fountain of 
Youth — Ponce de Leon — Discovery of Florida — Warlike op- 
position of the natives — Lucas Vasquez do Ayllon — Lands 
in Carolina — His treacherous conduct to the natives — Second 
voyage of De Ayllon — Its disastrous termination — Expedi- 
tion of Pamphilo de Narvaez — Lands in Florida — Attacked 
by natives — Sufferings and privations of his followers — They 
reach Apalachee — The village of Ante — They re-embark at 
Tampa Bay — Successive loss of the flotilla — Captivity of 
Alvar Nunez — His escape and return to Spain — His myste- 
rious reports — Hernando de Soto — His early career — His 
marriage — Entreats permission to conquer Florida — Is in- 
vested with the government of Cuba — Sailing of the expedi- 
tion — Arrival at Cuba — Liberality of Vasco Porcallo...Pa^e 19 



CHAPTER IL 

Embarkation of the Spaniards at Havana — Arrival at Tampa 
Bay — Skirmish with the natives — Capture of Juan Ortiz — 
His romantic adventures — The march through Florida — The 
troops constantly attacked by the natives — Take up their 
winter quarters at Apalachee — Continued hostility of the 
natives — The march resumed — De Soto reaches the province 
of Cofachiqui — His reception by an Indian princess — Enters 
northern Georgia and encamps at Chiaha — Fruitless search 
for gold — The province of Coosa — The Spaniards welcomed 
by its chief— The arrival at the province of Tuscaloosa — 
Haughty speech of Tuscaloosa — He accompanies De Soto 
to Mobile — The battle of Mobile — Condition of the victo- 
rious Spaniards — De Soto returns to Chickasa — His encamp- 
ment burned by the natives — Discovery of the Mississippi 
— The Spaniards cross the river into Arkansas — Encamp at 
the mouth of the Red River — Sickness and death of De 
Soto — Wandering of the Spaniards under Moscoso — Their 
return to Mexico 31 



10 CONTE 



s for 
CHAPTER III. ath the 



The Spanish settlements restricted to Florida j ima- 

lish, and Dutch colonies in North Amer' 
mission in Illinois — Marquette ordered to expi r\^]xr 

sissippi valley — The Illinois entreat him not ■. P^v 

His noble reply — Sets out on his journey — H' ' . 

and by whom — Reaches Maskoutens — Rude «. ' "id. 

Christianity among the natives — Speech of JoU; 
voyagenrs descend the Wisconsin — Their receptioL 
Des Moines villages — Marquette's address — Response o. .^q 
chief — Description of the monstrous Piasau — The voyage 
down the Mississippi — False alarm of the travellers They 
reach the cotton-wood region — Approach the vil vge of 
Michigamea — Hostile preparations by the natives — Rescue 
of Marquette and his party — Escorted to Arkansas, and 
hospitably entertained — The return to Canada r .Par/e 



CHAPTER IV. 

Robert Cavalier de la Salle — His emigration to Canada- 
comes a fur-trader — Establishes a trading-post at La C 
— His explorations — Made commandant of Fort Front 
— Returns to France — Obtains a patent of nobility ai a 
grant of land — Resolves to explore the valley of the Missis- 
sippi — Obtains a monopoly of the traffic in buffalo skins — 
Builds a brigantine on the upper waters of the Mississippi 
— Crosses the great Lakes to Mackinaw — Sails for Green 
Bay — Sends back the Griffin to Niagara, freighted with 
furs — Proceeds to the mouth of the St. Joseph — Builds the 
fort of the Miamis — Descends the Kankakee — Builds forts 
— Crevecoeur and Rock Fort — Returns to Fort Frontenac — 
Reappears in Illinois — Again returns to Canada — Prose- 
cutes his voyage to the Mississippi — Reaches the mouth of 
the Illinois — Descends the Mississippi to the Chickasaw 
bluflF — Loss of a hunter — Builds Fort Prudhomme 



CHAPTER V. 

Discovery of Old Virginia by Amidas and Barlow — Attempts 
at settlement — The James River colony — Its reverses and 
eventual prosperity — Extension of settlements — The Albe- 
marle region — A patent granted by Charles 11. for the pro- 
vince of Carolina — Locke's constitution — Its rejection in 
Albemarle — Culpeppei-'s insurrection — Governor Sothel — 



TENTS. 11 



'n — The Carolinas under separate 

^ — Car^ s . .urrection — Arrival of Uyde — War 

oras — Indian war with South Carolina — 

lana — D'Iberville establishes a colony at 

al to Mobile Bay — Crozat's grant — Charle- 

ase on the Cumberland — French forts in 

untry — New Orleans founded — Massacre 

'ly the Natchez — Province of Georgia settled 

-French expedition against the Chickasas — 

ailure Page 65 

n I CHAPTER VI. 

Waning influence of the French — Progress of Georgia — War 
betwee; -England, France and Spain — Virginia boundary 
extendi) I — Settlements on the Holston, Yadkin and Catawba 
— French in the valley of the Ohio — Mission of George 
"Washington — Fort Duquesne — Skirmish at Great Meadows 
— Surre- ler of Fort Necessity — Arrival of Braddock — His 
defeat r ""d death — Earl of Loudoun — Forts Prince George, 
Dobbs d Loudoun built — Campaign of 1758 — Capture of 
Fort T^^u^^uesne — Trouble with the Cherokees — Indian nego- 
**^ti T for peace — Conduct of Lyttleton — Massacre of 
-r hostages — Cherokee war — Montgomery marches 
• •'t the Indian towns — Relieves Fort Prince George* — 
^ i of Etchoe — Surrender of Fort Loudoun — Massacre 
of i^ isoners — Generosity of Attakulla-kulla — Advance of 
Grant — Second battle of Etchoe — Peace 82 



CHAPTER VIL 

Pressure of borderers upon the Cherokee country — Exploring 
parties in Tennessee — Wallen's hunters — Boone's — Hender- 
son employs Boon to explore Eastern Tennessee — Disco- 
very of Kentucky — Indian complaints — Royal proclamation 
• — Disregarded by the pioneers — Scaggins explores the Lower 
Cumberland — Remonstrance by the Iroquois — Council at 

^ Fort Stanwix — Cession of lands south of the Ohio — Chero- 
kee council at Hard Labour — Settlements on the Holston — 
The Long Hunters explore Kentucky — Increase of settlers 
at Watauga — They establish a local governnlent — The 
commissioners for Watauga — John Sevier — Extension of 
Virginia boundary — The Watauga lands leased of the 
Cherokees — An Indian murdered — Danger of the settlers 
— Heroism of Robertson — The north-western tribes — Trou- 
bles with the borderers — The massacre on the Ohio by 
Cresap and Greathouse — Indian war — Dunmore's campaign 
— Battle of Point Pleasant — Treaty of peace 96 



12 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Cherokee council at Sycamore Shoals — Purchase of the Wa- 
tauga territor}^ — Other grants — The Transj'lvania grant 
annulled by Dunmore — Colonial troubles — Instructions to 
the royal governors — Seizure of stores at Concord — Battle 
of Lexington — Difficulties with Dunmore — Patrick Henry 
maz-ches on Williamsburg — Flight of Dunmore — Action of 

. the Federal Congress at Philadelphia — Spirited conduct of 
North Carolina — Increased excitement in the province — 
Flight of Governor Martin — The legislature of North Caro- 
lina advocates a declaration of independence — Annexation 
of the Watauga settlement to North Carolina — Indian hos- 
tilities — Skirmish at Long Island — Defence of Watauga 
Fort — Anecdote of Catherine Sherrill — South Carolina me- 
naced by a British fleet — Provincial expeditions against the 
Cherokecs Page 106 



CHAPTER IX. 

Washington county established — Liberality of the North 
Carolina legislature — Special enactment in favour of the 
Watauga settlers — Increase of emigration — Military service 
— Assistance sent to Kentucky — Relief of Logan's Fort — 
Militia disbanded in Tennessee — Lawlessness of the Tories 
and Refugees — Committee of safety organized — Summary 
punishment of obnoxious persons — Hostility of the Chicka- 
maugas — The Nick-a-jack towns — Descrij^tion of the Nick- 
a-jack cave — Expedition against the Chickamaugas — De- 
struction of their towns — Jonesborough founded — Sullivan 
county established — Exploration of the Lower Cumberland 
— Robertson's settlement on the Bluff at Nashville — Do- 
naldson's remarkable voyage — Joins Robertson at the Bluff.. 120 



CHAPTER X. 

War of independence — Evacuation of Boston — Declaration of 
independence — Battle of Long Island — Of White Plains — 
Washington retreats across the Jerseys — Battle of Trenton 
— Battle of Princeton — Howe advances on Philadelphia — 
Battle of Brandywine — Of Oermantown — Burgoyne's inva- 
sion — His defeat at Saratoga — Conquest of Georgia — Sub- 
jugation of South Carolina — Defeat of Gates at Camden — 
Activity of the mountaineers — Shelby and Sevier join 



CONTENTS. 13 



McDowell — Capture of a tory garrison on Paeolet River — 
Advance of the British and Tories under Ferguson — Battle 
of Musgrove Mill — Rapid retreat of the mountaineers-.Pa^'e 129 



CHAPTER XL 

Mountaineers disbanded — Advance of Ferguson — His message 
to Shelhy — The mountaineers called to arms — Assemble at 
Watauga — Advance against Ferguson — The latter retires 
from Gilbert-town — American reinforcement — Conference of 
the partisan leaders at the Cowpens — Pursuit of Ferguson 
— Campbell selected to command the mountaineers — Ap- 
proach to King's Mountain — Order of battle — Sevier com.es 
under fire of the enemy — The attack commenced — Cou- 
rageous conduct of Ferguson — Eifect of his bayonet charges 
— Resolute perseverance of the mountaineers — Flag of sur- 
render twice torn down by Ferguson — His defiant conduct 
— His death — Surrender of the British and Tories — Tarle- 
ton sent to relieve Ferguson — His recall — Retreat of Corn- 
wallis — His subsequent movements — Battle of Guilford 
Court House — Capitulation at Yorktown 138 



CHAPTER XII. 

Return of the mountaineers — Indian hostilities — Battle of 
Boyd's Creek — Expedition into the Cherokee country — 
Destruction of Indian towns — Greene calls for reinforce- 
ments — Response of Shelby and Sevier — They join Marion 
• — Capture two British posts at Monk's Corner — Shelby ob- 
tains leave of absence — The mountaineers return home — 
Prosperity of Tennessee — Death of Unatoolah — Alarm of 
the settlers — A new station constructed — Pacific overtures 
made to the Cherokees — Council at Gist — Land-ofiice closed 
by North Carolina — Re-opened — Arbitrary extension of 
the western boundary — Greene county established — Explo- 
rations — Land-oifice opened at Hillsborough — Rapid sale 
of land — Expansion of the settlements west of the moun- 
tains 149 



CHAPTER XIIL 

Recognition of American independence — Difiiculties of the 

federal and state governments — Cession of public lands by 

North Carolina — Alarm of the mountaineers — Convention 

at Jonesborough — Declaration of independence — State of 

2 



14 CONTENTS. 



Franklin — North Carolina annuls her deed of cession — The 
mountaineers form a separate jurisdiction — Proclamation 
of Governor Martin — Its effect in the western counties — 
Political antagonisms — Increase of the party favourable to 
North Carolina — Tipton and Sevier — Outrages committed 
on both sides — Reactionary spirit — Return to the jurisdic- 
tion of North Carolina — Execution issued against the pro- 
perty of Sevier — Its seizure — Rash conduct of Sevier — His 
arrest — Escape — Election to senate of North Carolina.Pacj-e 15{ 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Robertson's colony on the Cumberland — Increase in popula- 
tion — Hostility of the Indians — Keywood and Hay killed — 
Freeland's station attacked — The settlers take refuge in 
block-houses — Cause of Indian hostility — Settlement on 
Red River broken up — Donaldson's party attacked — Panic 
among the settlers — Robertson's resolute advice — Freeland's 
station surprised — Repulse of the Indians — Desultory war- 
fare — Robertson's fort at the Bluff invested — Eight of the 
gai-rison killed by a stratagem — Custom of the country — 
Close of Revolutionary war — Temporary cessation of hos- 
tilities — Indian council at the Bluff — Spanish intrigues — 
Renewal of Indian incursions — Desperate skirmishes — 
Treaty of Hopewell— Continuance of hostilities — Robert- 
son's expedition — Attack on Hay at the mouth of Duck 
River — Surprise of Indian village by Robertson, and cap- 
ture of traders — Capture of French trading boats — Division 
of the spoils 169 



CHAPTER XV. 

Desultory Indian warfare continued — American attempts at 
retaliation — Robertson and Bledsoe remonstrate with McGil- 
livray — Death of Colonel Bledsoe — Robertson's negotiations 
with tiae Creeks — Hostilities continue — Increase of emigra- 
tion — Causes which influenced it — State grants and reserva- 
tions — District of Morgan established — Courts of law — Da- 
vidson county established — Nashville receives its name — 
Partial cessation of hostilities — Road opened through the 
wilderness — Sumner and Tennessee counties established — 
Voyage of Colonel Brown down the Tennessee — Massacre 
of his party by the Chichamauga Indians — Captivity of 
Mrs. Brown and the younger children — Their release — 
North Carolina cedes her western lands to the United 
States 181 



CONTENTS. 15 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Territorial government formed — Blount appointed governor 
— Difficulty with Spain — Instructions to Mr. Jay — Indigna- 
tion of the western people — Instructions rescinded — Unpo- 
pularity of the Federal government — Intrigues of Spain — 
Activity of Governor Blount — Indian hostilities — Campaigns 
of Harman and St. Clair — Restlessness of the Cherokees — 
Treaty of Holston — Depredations by the Creeks — Knoxville 
founded — The lower Cherokees declare war — Attack on 
Buchanan's station — Capture of Captain Handly — Captain 
Beard surprises Hiwassa — Is court-martialed — Hostile 
movements of the Creeks and Cherokees — Massacre at 
Cavet's station — Sevier's expedition — Defeat of the Indians 
— The Nick-a-jaek expedition Paje 1S9 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Organization of a territorial assembly — Congress petitioned to 
declare war against the Creeks and Cherokees — Colleges 
established at Greenville and Knoxville — Washington col- 
lege established — Convention at Knoxville and adoption of 
a constitution for the State of Tennessee — Sevier elected 
governor — Blount and Coxe chosen senators of the United 
States — Their election declared invalid — Subsequent action 
of the legislature of Tennessee — Andrew Jackson appointed 
a member of Congress — His personal appearance — Indian 
difficulties — Blount expelled the senate — Appointment of 
Jackson to fill the vacancy — Reception of Blount in Ten- 
nessee — Chosen a senator of the State — His trial and ac- 
quittal — His death — Roane elected governor — Prosperity 
of Tennessee 201 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

Aaron Burr — His duel with Hamilton — His journey to the 
AVest — Account of his projects against Spain and the United 
States — Co-operation of Blennerhasset — Burr publicly wel- 
comed at Nashville — Becomes the guest of Andrew Jackson 
— Descends the Mississippi — Returns to Philadelphia — 



16 CONTENTS. 



Intrigues -with Eaton, Truxton, and Decatur — Eaton's visit 
to Jefferson — Reappearance of Burr in the West — Military 
preparations in tlie Ohio valley — Burr's correspondence 
with Wilkinson — Denounced by the latter — Jackson's warn- 
ing to the governor of Louisiana — Jefferson's proclamation 
— Arrest of Burr in Kentucky — His acquittal — Suddenly 
appears at Nashville — Frustration of his schemes — Burr 
descends the Cumberland — Encamps on the west bank of 
the Mississippi — His arrest, trial and acquittal — His subse- 
quent fortunes Page 210 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Difficulties with Great Britain and France — Action of Con- 
gress — Increase of popular indignation against Great Britain 
— Congress declares war — Disastrous issue of the campaign 
at the north — Naval victories — Wilkinson calls on Tennes- 
see for volunteers — Prompt response — Reach Natchez under 
Jackson and Coffee — Ordered to be disbanded — Conduct of 
Jackson — Return to Nashville — Tecumseh — His attempt to 
form an Indian confederacy — Effect of his visit to the 
southern tribes — The Creeks become hostile — Massacre of 
Fort Mimms — Jackson reassembles the militia of Tennessee 
— Battle of Tallasehatche — Battle of Talladega — Successes 
of the Georgians and Mississippians 220 



CHAPTER XX. 

Jackson's difficulties at Fort Strother — Arrival of fresh troops 
— Jackson marches toward the centre of the Creek country 
— Battle of Emuckfau — Repulse of the Red Sticks — Return 
of the army toward Fort Strother — Battle of Enitaehopeo 
— Gallant conduct of Constantine Perkins and Craven Jack- 
son — Defeat of the Indians — Yohmteers discharged — Jack- 
son m.irclies from Fort Strother with a new army — Battle 
of Cholocco Litahixee — Terrible slaughter of the Red Skins 
— Anecdote of Jackson — Submission of the Indians — Wea- 
therford surrenders to Jackson — His speech — West Tennes- 
see volunteers ordered homo 232 



CONTENTS. 17 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Jackson appointed a major-general — He negotiates a treaty 
with the Creeks — The British at Pensacola — Jackson's cor- 
respondence -with the Spanish governor — His project for 
the reduction of Pensacola — He calls upon Tennessee for 
volunteers — Fort Bowyer attacked — Repulse of the British 
— They take refuge at Pensacola — Jackson determines to 
attack that place — Arrival of volunteers from Tennessee — 
Jackson marches upon Pensacola — Unsuccessful negotia- 
tions — Americans attack the town — Submission of the Spa- 
nish governor — Escape of the British — Indians driven off 
— Jackson resurrenders Pensacola — He proceeds to New 
Orleans '. Page 243 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Jackson calls again for volunteers — Patriotism of the Tennes- 
seeans — Disaffection at New Orleans — British forces under 
Packenham threaten that city — Difficulty with the Loui- 
siana militia — Martial law proclaimed — Vanguard of the 
enemy encamp on the Mississippi — Night attack by Jack- 
son and Coffee — Dilatory movements of the British — De- 
struction of the schooner Caroline — First repulse of the 
enemy — Jackson's difficulty with the Louisiana legislature 
— Battle of the 8th of January — Packenham slain — Final 
repulse of the British 253 



CHAPTER XXIIL 

Return of Jackson to New Orleans — Opposition of the citi- 
zens to the continuance of martial law — Imprisonment of 
a member of the legislature by order of Jackson — Arrest of 
Judge Hall — Intelligence of peace — Return of Hall to New 
Orleans — Arrest and trial of Jackson for contempt of court 
— A fine imposed — Demonstration of popular sympathy — 
Dismissal of the Tennessee volunteers — Honours awarded 
Jackson by Congress — McMimm elected governor — Diffi- 
culties with the Cherokees — With the Florida Indians — 
Jackson ordered to take the field — Tallahassee towns 
2* 



18 CONTENTS. 



burned — Seizure of the Spanish fort at St. Mark's — Skir- 
mishes with the Indians — Execution of Arbuthnot and 
Ambrister — Jackson takes possession of Pensacola — Pro- 
test of the Spanish minister — Execution of Arbuthnot and 
Ambrister discussed by Congress — Jackson sustained by 
the House of Representatives — Florida ceded to the United 
States Page 267 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Statistics of Tennessee according to the census of 1850 — 
Form of government, &c. — Conclusion 278 



HISTORY OF TEMESSEE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Romantic character of Spanish adventure — The Fountain of 
Youth — Ponce de Leon — Discovery of Florida — Warlike 
opposition of the natives — Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon — Lands 
in Carolina — His treacherous conduct to the natives — Second 
voyage of De Ayllon — Its disastrous termination — Expedi- 
tion of Pamphilo de Narvaez — Lands in Florida^ — Attacked 
by natives — Sufferings and privations of his followers — They 
reach Apalachee — The village of Ante — They re-embark at 
Tampa Bay — Successive loss of the flotilla — Captivity of 
Alvar Nunez — His escape and return to Spain — His myste- 
rious reports — Hernando de Soto — His early career — His 
marriage — Entreats permission to conquer Florida — Is in* 
vested with the government of Cuba — Sailing of the expe- 
dition — Arrival at Cuba — Liberality of Vasco Porcallo. 

Nothing in the whole range of history is more 
singularly romantic than the remarkable series 
of exploration and adventure which ushered in 
the sixteenth century. The discovery of an un- 
known continent by Columbus, and the heroic 
yet half barbaric exploits of Cortez and Pizarro, 
extended the dominions of Spain over a vast 
region, reaching from the Mexican Gulf to the 
Pacific Ocean, had poured into the royal treasury 

19 



20 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1512. 

at Madrid an almost fabulous amount of wealth, 
and correspondingly enriched all those daring 
soldiers of fortune, whose ambitious spirits led 
them to embark in perilous enterprises, the 
splendid results of which were owing, not less 
to their great powers of endurance than to 
their acknowledged courage. 

Successes so astonishing, achieved by a mere 
handful of men, when compared with the num- 
bers by whom they were opposed, animated 
others to undertake enterprises of a similar cha- 
racter. And though the field of conquest was, 
at the period to which we refer, confined to the 
southern shores of the American continent and 
the islands adjacent, it was already rumoured 
that to the north of Cuba lay lands as rich in 
gold and jewels as those over which the Spanish 
flag already floated, and nations as easy to be 
overcome. 

But it was a more romantic feeling than either 
the desire of wealth, or the ambition of renown, 
which led to the discovery of Florida. Juan 
Ponce de Leon, the aged governor of Porto Rico, 
a brave soldier in the old Moorish wars, and one 
who had acquired honour and distinction as a 
companion of Columbus, had heard from the na- 
tives of the Caribbee Islands of a wonderful 
fountain, which possessed the miraculous property 
of restoring the aged and the feeble to all the 
bloom and vigour of early youth. 



1512.] DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA. 21 

Stimulated by reports which were confirmed 
by Indian traditions, and credited at the court 
of Castile and Arragon, Juan Ponce, in March, 
1512, set sail in search of the Fountain of 
Youth ; and after seeking it in vain among the 
Bahama Islands, sailed to the north-west, and 
crossing the Gulf Stream, fell in w^th a beauti- 
ful country, whence the soft airs came laden 
with the fragrance of unknown flowers, and to 
which, from that cause, and from its having been 
first discovered on Palm Sunday — Pascua de 
Mores — he gave the name of Florida. Return- 
ing presently to Spain, he obtained authority to 
conquer and govern this hitherto unknown land ; 
but all his glowing anticipations terminated dis- 
astrously. He found the natives far more war- 
like than those of the islands ; and in his attempts 
to subdue them, he received a severe wound, which 
compelled him to return with the shattered re- 
mains of his expedition to Cuba, wdiere he lan- 
guished for a short time, and then died. 

A few years later, a small quantity of silver 
and gold, brought from the same coast to San 
Domingo by the captain of a caravel, stimulated 
Lucas Yasquez de Ayllon, in connection with 
several other wealthy persons, owners of gold 
mines in that island, to fit out two vessels, for 
the double purpose of exploring the country and 
of kidnapping Indians to work in the mines. A 
tempest driving these ships northward, to Cape 



22 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1520. 

Helena, in South Carolina, tliey finally anchored 
at the mouth of the Cambahee. The guileless 
Indians had no sooner recovered from their fears 
than they came flocking on board, bringing with 
them presents of valuable furs, some pearls, and 
a small quantity of silver and gold. Their ge- 
nerosity was requited with the foulest treachery. 
They were made prisoners, and carried to San 
Domingo. One of the vessels was lost during 
the voyage, the other returned safely ; but the 
poor captives were found useless as labourers, 
and pining for their lost liberty, the greater 
portion of them speedily died, either of grief or 
voluntary starvation. 

In 1520, while Cortez and his companions 
were marching to the conquest of Mexico, Vas- 
quez de Ayllon undertook a second voyage to 
Carolina. His largest vessel being blown ashore, 
a total wreck, he sailed with the other two a 
short distance to the eastward, where he landed 
in a delightful country, and was welcomed with 
such an appearance of frank hospitality by the 
Indians, that, wholly beguiled of his suspicions, 
he suiFered the greater portion of his men to ac- 
company their entertainers to a large village 
about nine miles in the interior. After being 
feasted for three days with the utmost show of 
friendship, the Spaniards were suddenly assault- 
ed as they slept, and massacred to a man. Early 
the next morning, Yasquez de Ayllon and the 



1528.] EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ. 23 

small party left to guard the ships were sur- 
prised in like manner, and very few escaped to 
carry back to San Domingo tidings of the fate 
which had befallen their comrades. 

Undeterred by the fatality which seemed to 
attend all attempts to subjugate the warlike na- 
tives of Florida, Pamphilo de Narvaez, the weak 
rival of Cortez, gathered about him a large 
number of resolute spirits, and bearing the royal 
commission as Adelantado, or military governor 
of the country, set sail on an expedition of con- 
quest and colonization. With four hundred men 
and forty-five horses, he landed on the eastern 
coast of Florida, on the 12th of April, 1528. 
After taking unmolested possession of the coun- 
try in the name of his sovereign, he ordered his 
ships to sail along the coast to the northward, 
while he penetrated inland in the same direction, 
attended by two hundred and sixty footmen and 
forty cavalry. 

The progress of the Spaniards did not long 
remain undisputed. They had scarcely com- 
menced their march before they began to be an- 
noyed by fierce, though desultory attacks from 
the natives. Brushing these oflf with increasing 
difficulty as they proceeded, they resolutely 
pressed forward through the tangled wilderness; 
now cutting a pathway through dense canebrakes, 
now crossing with uncertain footing broad reaches 
of treacherous swamps, and at times halting on 



24 HISTORY OF TEXXESSEE. [1528. 

the banks of rivers too deep to ford and too 
rapid to swim, until rafts could be constructed 
to carry them over. Though suffering from 
hunger, debilitated by sickness, and at all times 
exposed to the arrows of outlying foes, the re- 
port of abundance of gold in the province of 
Apalachee encouraged them to persevere. They 
well knew that the early sufferings of Cortez 
and his heroic followers had been compensated 
by the vfealth of Mexico, and in the midst of 
their sufferings were sustained by the hope of a 
similar reward. After struggling through the 
wilderness for fifteen days, they reached the 
long desired town of Apalachee, which, to their 
intense mortification, they found to be a mere 
collection of ordinary Indian wigwams. The 
inhabitants had fled before the advance of the 
Spaniards, but they indicated their presence in 
the vicinity, and their determined hostility, by 
lurking in the woods and cutting off all strag- 
glers, and by a series of pertinacious assaults, 
which gave the invaders no rest either by day or 
night. At this place Narvaez remained nearly 
a month, recruiting the strength of his weaker 
companions, and awaiting the return of parties 
sent out to examine the country for gold. Find- 
ing none, and having reports of a more peace- 
ful people nine days' journey to the southward, 
where abundance of provisions could be obtained, ' 
Narvaez departed from Apalachee, and took up 



1528.] EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ. 25 

his line of march for the village of Aute on the 
Bay of St. Mark's, which he finally reached after 
encountering many perils by the way, and suf- 
fering considerable loss both in men and horses. 
On the approach of the Spaniards the village was 
found to have been abandoned, and the houses 
burned; but sufficient corn remained in the 
granaries to satisfy their most pressing wants. 
Having lost one-third of their number, the dis- 
consolate survivors, broken down by disease, by 
weary and painful marches, and by the neces- 
sity of unintermitted watchfulness, concluded to 
return to Hispaniola. Too feeble to prosecute 
their journey by land, they adopted the scarcely 
less desperate expedient of building a few open 
barges, in which they proposed to cruise along 
the shore, until they met with the squadron from 
which they had disembarked in the spring. 

They at once set about their task. With sin- 
gular ingenuity, they constructed a bellows of 
deer hide ; and by the aid of charcoal and a rude 
forge, the iron of their spurs, crossbows, stir- 
rups, and superfluous armour, was speedily con- 
verted into nails, and such necessary tools as 
their exigencies required. Trees were felled, 
and laboriously hewn into shape. For ropes 
they used the fibres of the palm, strengthened 
by hair from the tails and manes of their horses. 
Their shirts, cut open and sewed together, served 
for sails ; while the skins of horses which had 

3 



26 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1528. 

been slain for food, were converted into vessels 
to contain the water required during the voyage. 
In six weeks five boats were completed, into 
each of which from forty to fifty men were 
crowded. Freighted so heavily that the gun- 
wales of their barks touched the water's edge, 
Narvaez and his followers quitted the Bay of St. 
Mark's on the 22d of September, and, bearing 
westward, sailed for many days along the coast, 
landing occasionally to do battle with the natives 
for food and water. The water-skins proving 
defective, some of the troops least capable of 
endurance expired of thirst. Others fell by the 
hands of the savages. Overtaken by a tempest, 
two of the boats were driven out to sea, and 
never heard of after. The remaining three 
foundered subsequently ; and of all that gallant 
company, only Alvar Nunez and four companions, 
after enduring ten years of captivity among the 
Indians, succeeded in returning to Mexico. These 
poverty-stricken wanderers, encouraged by the 
credulity of their listeners, narrated such mar- 
vellous legends of the countries through which 
they had passed, that when Alvar Nunez crossed 
over to Spain, bearing with him the first reliable 
tidings of the fate of Pamphilo de Narvaez, men 
turned aside from his tale of peril and suffering 
to question him concerning the reputed wealth 
of those lands wherein he had remained so long 
a prisoner. 



1530.] HERNANDO DE SOTO. 27 

Conjecturing from his affectation of mysteri- 
ous secrecy, that Florida was a second Peru ; 
the assertion of another of the wanderers, that 
it was ''the richest country in the world," gained 
implicit credence, and imaginative minds became 
easily convinced of the existence of a new region, 
where daring men might yet win a golden har- 
vest and a glorious renown. 

Foremost among those who entertained this 
belief was Hernando de Soto, a native of Xeres, 
and a gentleman by "all four descents." As a 
youthful soldier of fortune, possessing no pro- 
perty beyond his sword and buckler, he had 
joined the standard of Pizarro, under whom he 
soon won a distinguished military reputation. 
Rendered famous by the courage he displayed in 
the storming of Cuzco, and no less admired for 
his boldness in action than for his prudence in 
council, he speedily rose to the rank of second 
in command. Returning to Spain in the prime 
of life, with a fortune of one hundred and eighty 
thousand ducats, he assumed all the magnificence 
of a wea*lthy noble. He had his steward, gen- 
tleman of the horse, his chamberlain, pages, and 
usher. Already renouned for those heroic quali- 
ties which women so much admire, his riches 
and his noble person gained for him the hand 
of Isabella de Bobadilla, a lady of high rank, 
and connected by blood with some of the most 
powerful families in the kingdom. Elevated by 



28 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1538. 

these advantages, he repaired in great state to 
Madrid, attended by Luis Moscoso de Alvarado, 
Nuno de Tobar, and others, his friends and com- 
panions in arms, all of whom were gorgeously 
apparelled, and scattered their wealth on every 
side with a reckless prodigality. 

Rendered more than ordinarily credulous by 
his previous successes in Peru, De Soto inter- 
preted the vague replies of Alvar Nunez according 
to his own wishes ; and aspiring to increase the 
fame he had already acquired as a subordinate, 
by the honours to be derived from an inde- 
pendent command, he petitioned the Emperor 
Charles V. for permission to conquer Fl^orida 
at his own expense. It was not difficult to ob- 
tain the royal consent to an enterprise which, 
while it occasioned no outlay to the government, 
might be the means of bringing great wealth to 
the treasury. De Soto was appointed civil and 
military commander of Florida and governor of 
Cuba. He was also invested with the rank and 
title of marquis, with authority to select for him- 
self an estate thirty leagues long and fifteen 
broad, in any of the territories to be conquered 
by his arms. It was no sooner made known that 
Hernando de Soto, Pizarro's famous lieutenant, 
was organizing an expedition for the conquest 
of Florida, than numerous young Spanish and 
Portuguese nobles, burning for wealth, adventure, 
and distinction, sold their possessions, and hast- 



1538.] EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO. 29 

ened to join the standard of so renowned a leader. 
Men of all ranks speedily followed their example; 
and disposing of houses and lands, of vineyards 
and olive groves, assembled at Seville, in which 
city De Soto had taken up his abode to arrange 
the details of his magnificent enterprise. After 
being joined at Seville by the Portuguese volun- 
teers, he departed for the port of San Lucar de 
Barrameda, where he ordered a muster of the 
troops, for the purpose of enrolling such as were 
most capable of enduring the privations and 
hardships with which he knew the adventure 
would be attended. To this muster the Span- 
iards came gaudily apparelled in silks and satins, 
daintily slashed and embroidered; while the 
Portuguese made their appearance in burnished 
armour, excellently wrought, and with weapons 
to correspond. Chagrined that his own coun- 
trymen should have presented themselves in 
attire so wholly unfitted for the purpose in which 
they proposed to engage, De Soto ordered a 
second muster, at which all were to attend in 
armour. The display was still in favour of the 
Portuguese, who came equipped with the same 
soldierly care as before ; while most of the Span- 
iards, having spent the greater part of their 
fortune upon their silken gauds, made their ap- 
pearance in rusty and defective coats of mail, 
battered head-pieces, and with lances neither 
well made nor trustworthy. From the choicest 

3* 



30 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1538. 

of these, however, De Soto selected six hundred 
men, with whom he put to sea in six large and 
three small vessels, on the 6th of April, 1538. 
This fleet, having also on board twentj-four 
priests and monks for the conversion of the 
heathen, reached Gomera, one of the Canaries, 
on the 21st of April. At this port De Soto re- 
mained a few days, the welcome guest of the 
governor, of whose lavish hospitality all those 
on board the squadron were likewise made par- 
takers. 

Having refreshed his men, De Soto again set 
sail, and finally anchored off the island of Cuba 
toward the close of May. His arrival was made 
the occasion of great festivity and rejoicing. 
Tilts and jousting matches, feats of horseman- 
ship and skilful displays with sword and lance, 
revived the gorgeous and chivalric pastimes of 
previous centuries ; while games of chance, bull- 
fights, dances, and masquerades developed in a 
striking degree a not less peculiar phase of 
Castilian character. Billeting his men on the 
inhabitants of the city and surrounding country, 
De Soto spent a year in arranging the affairs of 
his government, and in gleaning information 
respecting the region he had undertaken to con- 
quer. In the mean time he was joined by Vasco 
Porcallo de Figuera, a wealthy cavalier, of 
mature age, whose long dormant ambition was 
again stirred to emulate the younger adventurers 



1538.] EMBARKATION AT HAYAJSU. 31 

in exploits of arms. By the newly-awakened 
liberality of this ancient soldier, De Soto was 
supplied, not only with provisions for present 
use, but with a large herd of live swine to furnish 
meat to the troops while on their march. Grati- 
fied by this evidence of good-will, De Soto ap- 
pointed Vasco Porcallo his lieutenant-general, a 
station from which Nuno de Tobar had lately 
been deposed for certain irregularities which he 
subsequently most nobly repaired. 



CHAPTER II. 



Embarkation of the Spaniards at Havana — ^Arrival at Tampa 
Bay — 'Skirmish with the natives — Capture of Juan Ortiz — 
His romantic adventures — The march through Florida — The 
troops constantly attacked by the natives — Take up their 
winter quarters at Apalachee — Continued hostility of the 
natives — The march resumed — De Soto reaches the province 
of Cofachiqui — His reception by an Indian princess^ — Enters 
northern Georgia and encamps at Chiaha — Fruitless search 
for gold — The province of Coosa — The Spaniards welcomed 
by its chief — The arrival at the province of Tuscaloosa — 
Haughty speech of Tuscaloosa— He accompanies De Soto 
to Mobile — The battle of Mobile — Condition of the victo- 
rious Spaniards — De Soto returns to Chickasa — His en- 
campment burned by the natives — Discovery of the Mis- 
sissippi — The Spaniards cross the river into Arkansas — • 
Encamp at the mouth of the Red River — Sickness and 
death of De Soto — Wandering of the Spaniards^ under 
Moscoso — ^Their return to Mexico. 

All the necessary preparations being at 
length completed, De Soto embarked his troops 



HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1539. 



on board eleven vessels, amply freighted with 
provisions and military stores. He set sail from 
the port of Havana, on the 12th of May, 1539, 
and on the 25th of the same month the squadron 
cast anchor in Tampa Bay. Landing his army, 
increased by Cuban volunteers to one thousand 
men, he took formal possession of the country 
in the name of his sovereign, and was imme- 
diately engaged in a skirmish with the natives. 
Foremost in the melee was the aged soldier Por- 
callo ; but being roughly handled, and having 
his horse killed under him, the veteran became 
disgusted with an enterprise which promised 
more hard blows than profit, and entreated per- 
mission to return in the ships which De Soto had 
resolved to send back to Cuba. His request was 
coldly granted. The first effort of the adelan- 
tado was to gain the friendship of the hostile 
chief whose territories he had so unceremoniously 
invaded. " I want none of their speeches, nor 
promises," said the haughty cacique. "Bring 
their heads, and I will receive them joyfully." 

In the midst of these attempts at negotiation, 
Balthazar de Gallegos, a bold and hardy soldier, 
was despatched with a body of horse and foot 
to scour the country in search of guides. While 
charging a small body of Indians, one of his men 
was arrested in his career by the voice of a fu- 
gitive, who cried out in broken Spanish, " Seville ! 
Seville !" and making the sign of the cross, add- 



1539.] JUAN ORTIZ. 33 

ed, "Slay me not, I am a Christian!" Stout 
Alvaro Nietro, the trooper thus invoked, imme- 
diately dropped the point of his lance, and joy- 
fully mounting his captive behind him, rode off 
with him to his leader. 

The stranger proved. to he Juan Ortiz, a gentle- 
man of Seville, who, at the age of eighteen, had 
joined the expedition of Pamphilo Narvaez. 
Returning to Cuba with the fleet, he subsequently 
set sail for Florida with a score of companions, 
despatched to ascertain the fate of that unfortu- 
nate commander. Lured on shore by pacific 
signs from the Indians, he was taken captive with 
three others, and carried to the presence of 
Hurrihigua, the same chief who had lately re- 
turned so defiant an answer to the messengers 
from De Soto. The companions of Ortiz were 
speedily massacred, and he himself, doomed to a 
similar fate, was rescued with difficulty by the 
daughter of Hurrihigua, but condemned to per- 
form menial offices of the most ignominious and 
revolting character. Several attempts being 
subsequently made upon his life, his preserver 
aided him, finally, in escaping to the village of a 
neighbouring chieftain to whom she was betroth- 
ed. Ortiz was kindly received, and under the 
care of his hospitable protector he remained nine 
years, having learned, in the mean while, the 
language of the Indians, and nearly forgotten 
his own. Exceedingly rejoiced at obtaining so 



84 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1539. 

efficient an interpreter, De Soto welcomed Ortiz 
with great heartiness. He caused him to be di- 
vested of his savage garb, and arrayed in gar- 
ments more befitting his birth and former con- 
dition. 

Leaving Pedro Calderon, with one hundred 
horse and foot, in charge of the camp, and a 
caraval and two brigantines to command the 
harbour, De Soto commenced his march inland. 
His troops were cased in armour of plate, or 
chain mail, the weapons of the cavalry being 
swords and lances; the footmen were equipped 
with cross-bows and arquebusses, and further 
protected by targets. It w^as a gorgeous yet 
cruel spectacle to see this army, splendidly array- 
ed, set out on its wanderings through the swamps 
and tangled forests of an unknown land, attend- 
ed by bloodhounds trained to hunt down the 
savages, and bearing with them chains to fetter 
the limbs of their captives ; implements of tor- 
ture strangely contrasting with the sacerdotal 
dresses, the chalices and other ornaments re- 
quired in their devotional exercises, and with the 
wine and the wheaten flour consecrated to the 
solemn service of mass. 

But though they went forth thus gallantly ca- 
parisoned, and with the assured port of pre- 
destined conquerors, they were soon to learn the 
difference between the prowess of the Indians 
inhabiting the region north of the Gulf Stream, 



1539.] MARCH THROUGH FLORIDA. 35 

and the languid courage of the natives of Mexico 
and Peru. 

Day after day, week after week, encumbered 
with baggage and by a large herd of swine, the 
troops moved slowly forward, cutting their Avay 
through almost impervious thickets, wading with 
great labour the treacherous morasses ; now 
swimming the numerous streams which inter- 
sected their line of route, and now halting to 
build rafts where the swift rivers forbade any 
less practicable mode of passage. After wander- 
ing for one hundred and fifty leagues through 
the forests and everglades of Florida, constantly 
attacked by hordes of ambushed savages, and 
suffering great loss both in men and horses, the 
weary and half-famished soldiers reached the 
fertile province of Apalachee, where, toward the 
close of October, a camp was formed, and the 
army went into winter-quarters. More than 
four months had been consumed in this harass- 
ing and perilous march, and, as yet, neither gold 
nor jewels had been discovered ; although the 
accounts given by their captives of the existence 
of precious metals, in provinces yet distant, in- 
flamed their hopes, and enabled them to sustain 
their privations and disappointments with some 
degree of equanimity. 

But the period of repose which De Soto re- 
quired to recruit the strength of his army was 
in a great measure denied him. Everywhere 



86 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1540. 

his exploring parties were attacked, and strag- 
glers cut off. Even his camp was the scene of 
constant alarms. But in the midst of their 
growing disgust with the country and its warlike 
inhabitants, the troops were again cheered by 
information received from two young Indian 
prisoners, of the existence of gold and silver in 
the greatest abundance in the remote eastern 
province of Cofachiqui. Breaking up his can- 
tonment in the early part of March, 1540, De 
Soto put his troops in motion, in search of a 
region so promising. On his entering the terri- 
tory which is now called Georgia, he was met by 
two warriors, who demanded haughtily, "What 
seek you in our land? Peace or war?" "We 
seek a distant province," responded De Soto, 
" and desire your friendship and food by the 
way." It was granted. Passing through a 
pleasant and fertile country, the army finally 
halted on the bank of the Savannah River. 
Here De Soto was visited by the beautiful prin- 
cess of Cofachiqui, whose town was on the oppo- 
site bank, now known as the Silver Bluff. She 
came to the water side in a litter, borne by four 
men, and entering a canoe richly-carved and orna- 
mented, seated herself upon a cushion over- 
shadowed by a canopy. She was attended by 
six councillors, grave men of mature age, and 
by a numerous retinue. On reaching the pre- 
sence of De Soto, the youthful cacique took from 



1540.] ENCAMPMENT AT CHIAHA. 37 

her person a long string of pearls, and placed 
them about the neck of the Spanish leader. 
Responding gallantly to this courtesy, De Soto 
drew from his finger a gold ring, set with a ruby, 
and presented it to her as a memorial of his 
friendship. The next day the army crossed the 
river and entered the village. On the 3d of 
May, De Soto again took up his line of march. 
Proceeding through northern Georgia, he cross- 
ed the Oostanaula; and, at the invitation of its 
young chief, took up his quarters early the fol- 
lowing month in the island town of Chiaha. 
Here the troops found vessels containing large 
qua^ntities of walnut and bears' oil, and pots of 
wild honey. 

After spending a month at Chiaha, greatly to 
the advantage both of men and horses, De Soto 
marched down by the west bank of the Coosa,, 
and entered Alabama. He had heard of gold 
and copper in the niountains to the north, and 
having sent two fearless troopers to explore that 
region, he waited at the town of Costa until they 
returned. The hardy adventurers brought back 
tidings of copper, but could find no gold. The 
march was now resumed. Passing through 
the beautiful province of Coosa, De Soto was 
met, on the 26th of July, by the chief of that 
region. He came to him, seated on cushions, in 
a chair of state, sustained by four of his princi- 
pal men. He was arrayed in a magnificent 



38 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1540. 

mantel of marten skins, and wore upon his head 
a gay tiara of many-coloured feathers. He was 
attended by a band of choristers and musicians, 
and by a thousand noble-looking warriors vari- 
ously plumed and ornamented. 
. The chief welcomed De Soto with great warmth, 
invited the troops to partake of the hospitality 
of his town, and placed all he had at their ser- 
vice. At the capital of Coosa, De Soto remain- 
ed for nearly a month, after which he proceeded 
to the southward, and entering the frontier town 
of Tallase, situated upon the Tallapoosa River, 
again encamped. Leaving this place, he entered 
next the province which received its name of 
Tuscaloosa from a powerful chief whom, the third 
morning of their march, the Spaniards found 
waiting for them in state, seated upon the crest 
of a high hill, overlooking an extensive and 
lovely valley, and surrounded by his principal 
warriors, dressed in rich mantles of furs, and 
ornamented with gayly-coloured plumes. Forty 
years of age, and of large stature, yet nobly 
proportioned, the haughty chief of the Mobilians 
regarded with calm indifference the military dis- 
play which was intentionally made by the Spa- 
niards for the purpose of eliciting his notice. 

''You are welcome," said he to De Soto. "It 
is needless to talk long. What I have to say 
can be said in a few words. You shall know how 
willing I am to serve you." 



1540.] VILLAGE OF MOBILE. 39 

They resumed their march, accompanied by 
Tuscaloosa, who, mounted on a strong hackney 
belonging to De Soto, was detained under the guise 
of friendship in a sort of honourable captivity. 
But no fair speeches or courteous attentions 
could blind the bold chieftain to the fact that his 
liberty was restrained; nor were his people less 
iiTdignant. While on the route two of the Spa- 
niards were missed. Suspecting they had been 
slain, De Soto demanded tidings of them from 
Tuscaloosa's followers. <' Why do you ask us ?" 
said they. "Are'we their keepers?" 

Apprehensive of some latent design, De Soto 
sent two troopers in advance to reconnoitre Mo- 
bile, a strongly fortified village, which is supposed 
to have occupied Choctaw Bluif, on the Alabama 
River. This village contained eighty houses, 
each large enough to hold from five hundred to 
a thousand men. It was surrounded by a high 
palisade, formed of the trunks of trees, bound 
together with vines, and covered with a smooth 
coating of prepared clay, so as to resemble a 
wall of masonry. As De Soto, accompanied by 
Tuscaloosa, approached the village with his van- 
guard, consisting of two hundred horse and foot, 
large numbers of warriors, clad in furs and de- 
corated with feathers and other ornaments, fol- 
lowed by musicians and dancers, and by a body 
of young and beautiful maidens, came out to 
welcome them as to a festival. They had 



40 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1540. 

scarcely entered within the walls before Tusca- 
loosa was engaged in earnest conversation with 
his people. Presently tidings were brought to 
De Soto, that within the houses immense num- 
bers of warriors were assembled, amply supplied 
with their usual weapons and missiles of offence. 
Orders were at once given to the Spaniards to 
be on the alert. 

Desirous of avoiding a resort to arms, if 
possible, De Soto endeavoured to regain posses- 
sion of the person of Tuscaloosa. He sent 
several messages to the chief by Juan Ortiz, in- 
viting him to come and partake of the dinner 
which awaited him ; but the haughty chief dis- 
dained to return any reply. At length, one of 
his principal warriors, wrought to a passionate 
frenzy by the voices of the Spaniards, rushed 
from the house in which Tuscaloosa remained 
surrounded by his people, and fiercely exclaimed : 
'' Where are these robbers, these vagabonds, who 
call upon my chief Tuscaloosa to come out with 
so little reverence ? Let us cut them to pieces 
on the spot, and so put an end to their wicked- 
ness and tyranny." 

An Indian placed a bow in his hand. Giving 
freedom to his motions by throwing back his 
splendid fur mantle, he directed the arrow, 
drawn to its head, against a group of Spaniards 
assembled in the square. At this moment he 
fell dead, being nearly cleft in twain by the 



1540.] BATTLE OF MOBILE. 41 

sweep of a sword wielded bj stout Baltasar de 
Gallegos. A fierce tumult immediately arose. 
Myriads of armed warriors swarmed from 'the 
houses, and commenced an attack upon the Spa- 
niards with clubs, and arrows, and stones. Taken 
at a disadvantage, five of the latter were quickly 
slain ; and it was with great difiiculty that De 
Soto and his companions retreated from the 
town to where their horses were tied. Some 
succeeded in mounting before their pursuers ar- 
rived, others were slain before their eyes, with- 
out the power to rescue them. All the baggage 
fell into the hands of the enemy. It was carried 
into the town amid great rejoicings. The mana- 
cles of the Indian captives, who had been con- 
strained to bear these burdens, were speedily 
struck off, and arms placed in their hands. In 
the mean time, the fight was kept up outside the 
walls, although the gates were shut. A rein- 
forcement of cavalry from the main body having 
at length enabled the foot soldiers to shake ofi* 
their thronging foes, De Soto now headed a fu- 
rious charge, and the Indians were driven into 
the town. Assailed from within by a storm of 
arrows and other missiles, the Spaniards were 
compelled to retire from before the walls. Their 
retreat was the signal for another fierce sally. 
In this manner the battle raged for three hours 
with varying success, the Spaniards fighting in 
a compact body, advancing and retreating as one 
4* 



42 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1540. 

man. A small detachment within the city, 
sheltering themselves in a house, defended their 
post for many hours with a courage bordering 
on despair. At length the Indians were forced 
by loss of numbers to retire within their en- 
closures, and a great portion of the Spanish 
main body, under Moscoso, coming up at this 
time, an assault was determined on. 

Obedient to the orders of their leader, two 
hundred of the cavalry, protected by bucklers, 
sprang forward, and after repeated repulses 
dashed in the gates with their battle-axes. At 
the same time others clambered over the wall, 
by breaking away the mud plastering for a pre- 
carious foothold. In the streets, and from the 
walls and housetops, the Indians, though falling 
in great heaps, sought desperately, by the crush 
of numbers, to overwhelm their assailants. None 
asked quarter, but all fought until they fell. 
The great pool which supplied the town with 
w^ater was crimsoned with the blood of the dead 
and the dying. Yet of this water the Spaniards 
drank to appease the thirst by which they were 
consumed, and then, rejoining their companions, 
continued the battle. To put an end to this 
fierce and dubious conflict, De Soto mounted his 
horse, and with lance in hand, and the battle-cry 
of '' Our Lady of Santiago !" hurled himself 
into the midst of the struggling masses, closely 
followed by the gallant Nuno de Tobar. De Soto, 



1540.] SLAUGHTER OF THE INDIANS. 43 

deeply wounded in the thigh by an arrow, fought 
standing in his stirrups. Rending through the 
multitude on every side, trampling some beneath 
the hoofs of their horses, and thrusting the life 
out of innumerable others, the two cavaliers 
maintained their sanguinary supremacy until 
night and sheer exhaustion terminated the con- 
flict. 

At this time the town was set on fire, and the 
flames extending themselves with great rapidity, 
enveloped with a burning girdle the hapless In- 
dians who yet held possession of the houses. 
Conscious of the fate impending over them, 
those who were at large gathered . together, and 
men and women precipitated themselves upon 
their foes. But what impression could poorly 
equipped and ill-disciplined thousands make upon 
men cased in defensive armour, wielding infinite- 
ly superior weapons, and directed by consum- 
mate military skill ? Piled one upon another, 
they fell clutching at the arquebusses, swords, 
and lances, to the last. For nine hours this 
terrible battle continued. When it ceased, the 
great town of Mobile was a heap of ashes, and 
six thousand Indians lay slaughtered around. 
To the Spaniards it was a victory purchased at 
a fearful price. Eighty-two of their number 
were killed, or mortally wounded, two of whom 
were near kinsmen to De Soto ; and not one of 
the survivors came out of the battle unhurt. 



44 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1541. 

Seventeen hundred dangerous wounds attested 
alike the courage of the Mobilians and the en- 
durance of the Spaniards. The latter had like- 
wise to mourn the irreparable loss of a large 
number of mules, besides the destruction of their 
baggage, which, with the robes of the priests, 
the consecrated vessels, and other ornaments 
sacred to their worship, had been consumed in 
the flames. Tidings of his ships awaiting 
him at Pensacola Bay reaching De Soto at this 
time, caused great rejoicing among the troops, 
many of whom desired nothing better than to 
abandon the country. Among the cavaliers a 
scheme was arranged to desert De Soto, and re- 
embark for their several homes. Indignant at 
this contemplated treachery, De Soto turned his 
back upon his vessels, and marching northward, 
took up his winter-quarters in the province of 
Chickasa. Finding here a supply of maize, he 
remained for several months ; but the natives, 
who had for some time feigned a friendship for 
the invaders, became jealous of their prolonged 
sojourn, .and toward the spring of 1541, in the 
midst of a dark, cold, blustering night, rushed 
into the village where the Spaniards were en- 
camped, and set it on fire. Roused suddenly 
from their slumbers, the troops rushed out and 
fought in such clothes and with such arms as 
they could catch up hastily. Forty Spaniards 
and not less than fifty horses were killed in this 



1542.] DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 45 

sudden onslaught ; while most of the garments 
of the Spaniards were consumed by the fire, 
which also injured irretrievably much armour and 
many weapons. 

Repairing these disasters as best they might, 
they resumed their wanderings ; and after strug- 
gling for seven days through a wilderness alter- 
nating with swamp and forest, entered the 
village of Chisca, whence De Soto beheld for the 
first time, from the lower Chickasa Bluffs, the 
mighty waters of the Mississippi. Here, on the 
confines of Tennessee, and not far from the 
present city of Memphis, the wearied troops, 
after traversing a dense forest for several 
days, halted for three weeks to build piraguas. 
Embarking in them, they crossed the river in 
detachments, without opposition, and continuing 
their march along its western bank, finally took 
up their quarters for the winter in the province 
of Pacahas, in Arkansas. At this place died 
Juan Ortiz, the interpreter. In the spring of 
1542, De Soto, now hopeless of finding gold, 
and changing from his sterner mood to a pro- 
found melancholy as he contemplated his losses 
and continual disappointments, descended the 
Washita and encamped at the confluence of the 
Red River with the Mississippi. At this place 
he commenced the building of two brigantines ; 
sending out, in the mean time, a detachment to 
ascertain the course of the great river and the 



46 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1542. 

distance to the sea. In eight days the troopers 
returned, and reported the route impracticable, 
by reason of the swamps and rivers by which it 
was obstructed. 

Hoping to recruit his own failing strength, 
and that of his followers, in the opposite pro- 
vince of Quigualtanqui, De Soto sent a messen- 
ger to the cacique of a tribe whose residence was 
in the vicinity of the modern town of Natchez, 
demanding his homage, on the ground that he 
was the son of the Sun, and as such entitled to 
worship and obedience. "If he be so," respond- 
ed the chieftain, " let him dry up the river be- 
tween us, and I will believe him. If he visits 
my town in peace, I will receive him in friend- 
ship ; if as an enemy, he shall find me ready for 
battle." 

Already sick of a mortal disease, De Soto was 
in no mood to retort upon the chieftain his scorn- 
ful reply. Tortured with anxiety for the safety 
of his command, his illness daily increased. 
Confident that his end approached, he convened 
his officers, and appointed Luis de Moscoso his 
successor. The poor remains of his once goodly 
army were next summoned by detachments to 
his couch. After taking a solemn leave of them, 
he humbly confessed his sins, and on the 21st of 
May, 1542, expired, in the forty-second year of 
his age. 

Mournfully depositing the body of their be- 



1543.] RETURN TO MEXICO. 47 

loved commander, wrapped in his mantle, in the 
trunk of an evergreen oak, hollowed out for that 
purpose, they reverently lowered it, at midnight, 
beneath the Avaves of that magnificent river he 
had been the first European to discover. 

Resuming their wanderings soon after, the 
disconsolate adventurers endeavoured to reach 
Mexico by way of the Red River. Beguiled by 
their guides, they reached, by a tortuous and 
difficult route, the prairies of the west, from 
whence, after great suffering, and beset by innu- 
merable difficulties, they retraced their steps to 
the Mississippi ; and, constructing brigantines 
on its banks, sailed down the river to its mouth. 

On the 10th of September, 1543, three hundred 
and eleven haggard men, blackened by exposure, 
shrivelled by famine, some clad in skins of wild 
beasts, and others in Indian mats, or in the 
ragged remains of their former gay apparel, after 
"a voyage of fifty days, entered the Panuco, a 
river of Mexico, flowing into the Gulf Stream, 
where they were kindly received, and entertained 
with unbounded hospitality. They were the only 
survivors of the famous but inglorious expedition 
of Hernando de Soto. 



48 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1650. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Spanish settlements restricted to Florida — French, Eng- 
lish, and Dutch colonies in IMorth America — The Jesuit 
missions in Illinois — Marquette ordered to explore the Mis- 
sissippi valley — The Illinois entreat him not to venture — 
His noble reply — tSets out on his journey — How attended, 
and by v^'hom — Reaches Maskoutens — Rude evidences of 
Christianity among the natives — Speech of Jolliet — The 
voyageurs descend the Wisconsin — Their reception at the 
Des Moines villages — Marquette's address — Response of the 
chief — Description of the monstrous Piasau — The voyage 
down the Mississippi — False alarm of the travellers — They 
reach the cotton wood region — Approach the village of 
Michigamea — Hostile preparations by the natives — Rescue 
of Marquette and his party — Escorted to Arkansas, and 
hospitably entertained — The return to Canada. 

But though a fatality attended all those Spa- 
nish adventurers who attempted to obtain a per- 
manent foothold on the northern shore of the 
Gulf Stream, Spain claimed henceforth the sove- 
reignty of Florida, including within the limits 
of her new domain the territory on both sides 
of the Mississippi, extending backward to the 
prairies of the West. A century and a quarter 
after the death of De Soto, the only indication of 
Spanish possession was the small settlement at 
St. Augustine, founded in 1564 by the bigoted 
and sanguinary Melendez. But while the co- 



1671.] JESUIT MISSIONS. 49 

lonial possessions of Spain on the Nortli Ame- 
rican continent were restricted to a solitary fort 
and a slender garrison on its southern peninsula, 
other nations had entered with success upon the 
field of adventure ; and from Labrador to Caro- 
lina, the Atlantic coast of the new world was 
dotted at intervals with thriving colonies. In 
remote Canada the energetic Champlain had 
founded a prosperous province. At the East, 
the sedate, God-fearing men of the New Eng- 
land provinces were indoctrinating a hardy race 
in the principles of true political liberty. On 
the banks of the Hudson, the Dutch of New 
Netherland had lately taken the oath of allegi- 
ance to the Duke of York, afterward James II. ; 
while farther to the south, Maryland, Virginia, 
and the Carolinas were increasing rapidly in 
wealth and population. 

Up to this period all traces of Pe Soto's 
great discovery appear to have been lost, and 
the existence of the Mississippi was only con- 
jectured from imperfect narratives of that un- 
fortunate expedition, and from reports brought 
by the Illinois Indians to the members of the 
Jesuit missions, one of whose stations was at the 
Saulte de Sainte Marie, a little below the foot 
of Lake Superior. Here the humble but heroic 
Marquette first heard of a great river flowing 
through the Illinois country, and tracing its way 
southward for thousands of miles, until it finally 



50 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1671. 

poured its immense volume of waters into an 
unknown sea. 

In 1671 a new missionary station was formed 
at Point St. Ignatius, to which Marquette was 
ordered to repair; and here he continued, de- 
voted to the duties of his calling, until 1673, 
when he was directed by M. Talon, the Intend- 
ant in New France, to explore the region west- 
ward. These instructions realized the most 
ardent wishes of the pious father, and he imme- 
diately prepared for the journey, "firmly re- 
solved to do all, and suffer all, for so glorious 
an enterprise." The terrified Indians to whom 
Marquette had preached, and by whom he was 
greatly beloved, characterized his attempt as 
reckless and desperate. They told him he would 
meet with nations who never spared the stranger ; 
that the great river was full of hidden dangers, 
and abounded with terrible monsters, who swal- 
lowed up men and canoes ; that an immense bird, 
swooping from afar, pounced upon hapless voy- 
agers, carried them to its inaccessible eyrie 
among the mountains, and there deliberately 
tore its victims to pieces with beak and talons. 
And, lastly, they told him of heats that would 
dry up the very marrow of his bones. Nothing 
daunted, the good Marquette thanked them 
kindly for their counsel, but told them '' that I 
could not profit by it, since the salvation of souls 
was at stake, for which object I would be over- 



1673.] MARQUETTE AT MASKOUTENS. 51 

joyed to give my life." And so, in the spring 
of 1673, father James Marquette, the Sieur 
Jolliet, a French Canadian, who had ah-eady now 
some local fame as an explorer, and five boat- 
men, departed from Mackinaw in two frail birch 
bark canoes, so light as to be easily borne across 
portages on the shoulders of four men, crossed 
Lake Huron into Green Bay, ascended Fox 
River to the portage of the "Wisconsin, and 
reached Maskoutens on the 7th of June. Beyond 
this no European explorer had ever ventured. 
The village of Maskoutens was be'autifully situ- 
ated on an eminence, around which spread 
prairies on every side, "interspersed with thick- 
ets, or groves of lofty trees." But what most 
cheered the heart of the pious Marquette was to 
behold a handsome cross planted in the centre 
of the village, and adorned with skins, belts, 
bows and arrows, the votive offerings of warriors 
that had seldom sent out war-parties in vain, 
to the Christian Manitou, whom Father Allouez 
had taught them thus rudely to worship. 

<'I am sent by our governor to discover new 
countries, and the reverend father, by the Al- 
mighty, to illumine them with the light of the 
gospel," said Jolliet; and he requested of his 
astonished hearers two guides, to put them in 
their way. It was granted. 

Nine miles from Maskoutens, the voyageurs, 
after carrying their "boats across the portage, 



52 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1673. 

embarked upon the broad shallow waters of the 
"Wisconsin, with its difficult sandbars and its 
lovely vine-clad islets ; and, on the 17th of June, 
after descending the river for one hundred and 
twenty miles, entered the Mississippi ''with a 
joy," says Marquette, "that I cannot express." 

For fourteen days they floated down the river 
without perceiving any sign of human life. At 
length, on the 25th of June, they discovered an 
Indian trail, leading westward from the water's 
edge, until at a distance of two leagues across a 
beautiful prairie it diverged to three Indian vil- 
lages. Toward one of these, a village standing 
on the right bank of the river, Des Moines, Mar- 
quette, and Jolliet advanced, leaving the canoes 
in charge of the boatmen. It was a hazardous 
service, and the two humble yet resolute voya- 
geurs evinced their knowledge of the risk they 
ran, by devoutly commending themselves to God. 
Halting within sight of the village, they raised 
a low cry ; whereupon, after the confusion occa- 
sioned by their presence had subsided, four old 
men advanced toward them, two of whom bore 
tobacco-pipes handsomely adorned, and orna- 
mented with many kinds of feathers. ''Who 
are you?" inquired Marquette. "We are Illi- 
nois," they responded ; and presenting the peace- 
pipes, invited their visitors to enter the village. 

"How beautiful is the sun, Frenchman! 
when thou comest to visit us ! All our town 



1673.] MARQUETTE'S ADDRESS. 53 

awaits thee, and thou shalt enter all our cabins 
in peace." 

Such was the greeting which met Marquette 
as he approached the cabin appointed for his 
reception ; while the crowd which closed respect- 
fully behind the travellers, occasionally cried 
out, "Well done, brothers, to visit us !" 

After smoking the calumet, they were invited 
to attend a council at the great Sachem's village. 
Crowds thronged the way, all eager to behold 
the adventurous Frenchmen, and all eager to do 
them reverence. Assembled in the council-house, 
Marquette addressed himself to the hushed multi- 
tude. Dividing his discourse into four heads, 
closing each part with a present, he declared the 
object of his mission to be one of discovery, and 
himself the bearer of tidings of peace and good- 
will to all the nations on the river. He next 
preached to them concerning God the Creator, 
at whose bidding he had come to exhort them to 
acknowledge and obey him. He spoke also of 
the governor of Canada ; and after telling them 
that he had vanquished their enemies the Iro- 
quois, concluded by asking for all the informa- 
tion they could give respecting the course of the 
Great River to the sea, and the nations through 
which they had yet to pass. 

Then the great chief arose, and thanked the 
voyageurs for having visited them. ''Never," 
said he, " has the earth been more beautiful, nor 

5* 



64 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1673. 

the sun so bright as to-day ; never has our river 
been so calm, nor so free from rocks, which your 
canoes have removed as they passed ; never has 
our tobacco had so fine a flavour, nor our corn 
appeared so beautiful." He closed by present- 
ing Marquette with a youthful slave in token of 
his esteem for the governor, and with a calumet 
ornamented with feathers of various hues, to 
protect him during a voyage which he earnestly 
exhorted him to prosecute no farther. 

"I do not fear death," responded Marquette," 
" and esteem no happiness greater than that of 
losing my life for the glory of Him who made all." 
A festival followed, consisting of hominy, fish, 
bufialo, and dog-meat, served up in succession ; 
but of the last their visitors would not partake. 
After passing the night in the dwelling of the 
principal chief, the travellers were accompanied 
the following day to their canoes by six hun- 
dred persons, who took leave of the good father 
in the kindest manner, and received from him a 
promise that he would return the next year and 
instruct them — a pledge which he subsequently 
redeemed. 

Toward the close of June the little party 
resumed their voyage ; and as they coasted the 
rocks above the present town of Alton, they were 
startled at beholding, painted thereon, rude re- 
presentations of the fabled Piasau, a monster 
" as large as a calf, with horns on the head like 



1673.] VOYAGE DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 55 

a deer, a fearful look, red eyes, bearded like a 
tiger, the face somewhat like a man's, the body 
covered with scales, and the tail so long that it 
twice makes the turn of the body, passing over 
the head and down between the legs, and ending 
at last in a fish's tail." The same day they 
reached the mouth of the Missouri, and, float- 
ing downward, passed another beautiful river, 
known subsequently as the Wabash — the same we 
now call the Ohio. 

It was the middle of July, and as they ap- 
proached the region of the cane they became 
oppressed with the intolerable heat and annoyed 
by swarms of musquitos. An awning formed 
from the sails of the canoes afforded an indif- 
ferent protection both from the insects and the 
sun. As the voyageurs were thus gliding with 
the current, they perceived a party of Indians 
standing on the shore, armed with guns. Mar- 
quette presented his calumet, and accosted them 
in Huron, but they replied in what seemed to 
him the language of defiance. Happily he was 
mistaken ; and after landing and partaking of 
their hospitality, the adventurous party re-em- 
barked, and descended the river, whose banks 
presently were found clothed with lofty forests 
of cotton-wood, elms, and other unknown trees, 
until, in about thirty-three degrees north lati- 
tude, they came within sight of the village of 
Michigamea. Marquette and his companions 



56 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1673. 

were no sooner discovered by the natives than 
they assembled in great numbers, armed "with 
bows, arrows, axes, war-clubs, and bucklers ; 
and while some kept watch upon the shore, 
others sprang into their canoes, evidently bent 
on the destruction of the intruders. In vain 
Marquette displayed the calumet, and made re- 
peated signals of peace. The danger every 
instant became more imminent. One war-club 
had already been hurled at him, and innumera- 
ble bows were in the act of being bent, when 
some of the chiefs on shore recognised the calu- 
met, and commanding their warriors to desist, 
hastened to throw aside their weapons and wel- 
come the wanderers to their village. The next 
morning they were escorted by a deputation 
eight or ten leagues down the river, to the chief 
village of Akansea, or Arkansa, where they were 
again entertained with great hospitality, and 
where, by means of an interpreter, Marquette 
endeavoured to bring them to a knowledge of 
the true God. 

Here, in the region where De Soto breathed 
his last, and where Moscoso fitted out his crazy 
brigantines, the adventurous voyage was termi- 
nated. From the answers of his entertainers 
Marquette discovered that the Great River emp- 
tied into the Gulf of Mexico; and fearful of 
losing the fruit of his discoveries, resolved to 
return to Canada. Taking leave of their doubt- 



1675.] ROBERT DE LA SALLE. 57 

ful friends, they proceeded slowly up the river ; 
and after a tedious voyage reached Green Bay 
in safety toward the close of September, having 
thus fearlessly accomplished a hazardous journey 
of more than three thousand miles. 



CHAPTER lY. 



Robert Cavalier de la Salle — His emigration to Canada— Be- 
comes a fur-trader — Establishes a trading-post at La Chine 
— His explorations — Made commandant of Fort Fronte- 
nac — Returns to France — Obtains a patent of nobility and 
a grant of land — Resolves to explore the valley of the Mis- 
sissippi — Obtains a monopoly of the traffic in buffalo skins — 
Builds a brigantine on the upper waters of the Mississippi — 
Crosses the great Lakes to Mackinaw — Sails for Green 
Bay — Sends back the Griffin to Niagara, freighted with 
furs — Proceeds to the mouth of the St. Joseph — Builds 
the fort of the Miamis — Descends the Kankakee — Builds 
forts CreveccEur and Rock Fort — Returns to Fort Fron- 
tenac — Reappears in Illinois — Again returns to Canada — 
Prosecutes his voyage to the Mississippi — Reaches the 
mouth of the Illinois — Descends the Mississippi to the 
Chickasaw bluff— Loss of a hunter— Builds Fort Prud- 
homme. 

The extraordinary success which had attended 
Marquette and Jolliet in their voyage of ex- 
ploration opened up a field for commercial ad- 
venture, of which one energetic man was pre- 
pared to take advantage. This was Robert 
Cavalier de la Salle, a native of Rouen in Nor- 



58 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1675. 

mandy, who had sacrificed his patrimony by 
entering a religious order, which he subsequently 
left to engage in enterprises better suited to his 
restless and energetic nature. To such a mind 
Canada offered at once a refuge from poverty 
and the promise of acquiring both fame and for- 
tune. The hope of finding a shorter passage to 
China and the East Indies was still entertained 
by many enthusiastic men, and among them the 
young but resolute La Salle, who presently 
established a trading-post near Montreal, and 
indicated the adventurous bent of his thoughts 
by calling it La Chine. From this centre of his 
fur-trading operations he undertook various ex- 
plorations in the region of Lakes Ontario and 
Erie, and soon became known to Count Fronte- 
nac, the governor of Canada, for his intellectual 
ability and his enterprising spirit. When, 
therefore, to repress the incursions of the war- 
like Iroquois, Fort Frontenac was built at the 
eastern extremity of Lake Ontario, the governor, 
an excellent judge of men, intrusted its com- 
mand to La Salle. 

But the latter had a larger ambition than 
could be circumscribed by the log walls of a 
fortress in the wilderness. In 1675 he repaired 
to France, where, supported by the steadfast 
friendship of Frontenac, and countenanced by 
De Courcelles and Talon, he obtained a patent 
of nobility, a monopoly of the fur-trade of Lake 



1675.] MEASURES OF LA SALLE. 59 

Ontario, and a large grant of land around Fort 
Frontenac, on condition of rebuilding the fort 
of stone, of erecting a village in its vicinity, and 
of supporting, at his own expense, a competent 
garrison, and a mission of Franciscan friars. 

These conditions were fulfilled ; but difficul- 
ties with rival fur-traders constantly thwarted 
the designs of La Salle ; and although a mixed 
population presently gathered around the armed 
trading-post, and his possessions rapidly in- 
creased, the restless Frenchman yearned for a 
life of adventure and an undisputed field of 
traffic with the Indians. It was at this period 
that Jolliet's report of the fertile valley of the 
Mississippi, and its innumerable herds of elk 
and bufi"alo, fired La Salle to attempt some en- 
terprise of great magnitude, which should make 
his name famous through all time. 

Embarking for France, he laid his giant 
scheme of commerce and colonization before 
Colbert, the prime minister ; and patronized by 
Seignelay, the son of Colbert, at that time mi- 
nister of marine, he obtained, ^'with the mono- 
poly of the traffic in bulfalo skins, a commission 
for perfecting the discovery of the Great River." 
Returning to Canada in September, he pro- 
ceeded presently to Fort Frontenac, accompanied 
by Tonti his lieutenant, and attended by a party 
of mechanics and mariners, bearing provisions 
and merchandise, together with such other articles 



60. HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1675. 

as were necessary to the construction and equip- 
ment of a brigantine in the wilderness. By the 
middle of November a vessel of ten tons was 
finished and freighted ; and on the 18th of the 
same month his company set sail from Fort 
Frontenac, and entering, for the first time, the 
Niagara River, commenced the construction of a 
fort and trading-house above the falls. A small 
vessel, intended to ply on the waters of Lake 
Erie, was now begun ; and while Tonti and Hen- 
nepin were penetrating the wilderness on trading 
and exploring expeditions. La Salle was endea- 
vouring to maintain pacific relations with the 
Iroquois, whose jealousy had already been ex- 
cited by the malevolent intrigues of rival traders. 
To quiet the apprehensions of the savages, the 
building of the fort was suspended, and the 
trading-house surrounded by palisades instead. 
But although large supplies of furs were ob- 
tained. La Salle had to contend with many diffi- 
culties and some reverses, and only waited for 
an opportunity to extend his discoveries beyond 
the limits attained by former adventurers, and 
to reap the advantages to which he was entitled 
by the royal charter. At length his new vessel, 
the Griffin, a bark of sixty tons, was completed, 
and sudcessfully launched on the upper waters 
of the Niagara River; and on the 7th of August, 
La Salle, embarking all his company with the 
exception of a few clerks and labourers, set sail 



1675.] PROGRESS OF LA SALLE. 61 

on his great adventure, the exploration of the 
Mississippi Valley. Prosperous gales speedily 
carried the daring voyagers across Lakes Erie 
and St. Clair, but on entering Lake Huron they 
encountered so severe a storm that, for a time, 
they gave themselves up for lost. At length, 
however, they succeeded in reaching Mackinaw, 
a place ««of prodigious fertility," where he or- 
dered a small fortified station to be constructed. 
Leaving a detachment of his company behind for 
this purpose. La Salle sailed on the 2d of Sep- 
tember for Green Bay, from whence he sent 
back the Griffin to Niagara, richly freighted with 
furs. Those of his followers whom he had sent 
round by the opposite shore, he ordered to ren- 
dezvous at the mouth of the St. Joseph. The 
same directions were given to the faithful 
Tonti, who had returned to Mackinaw. With 
the seventeen men remaining, and accompanied 
by the Recollect missionaries, Hennepin, Mem- 
brd, and De la Ribourde, La Salle crossed Lake 
Michigan in canoes, and halted at the appointed 
rendezvous until his men should join him. 

During the month he remained on this penin- 
sula, anxiously waiting for tidings of the Griffin, 
the men were kept busily employed in erecting 
another picketed station, which was subsequently 
called the Fort of the Miamis. 

Receiving no intelligence of the Griffin, La 
Salle resolved to prosecute his voyage. Leaving 



62 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1676. 

four men in garrison at St. Joseph's, lie crossed, 
with the rest of his company, some thirty in 
number, the short but difficult portage to the 
Kankakee, and descending the river by easy 
stages, arrived toward the close of December at 
an Indian village composed of from four to five 
hundred cabins, each capable of containing seve- 
ral families. Its usual inhabitants being absent 
on their winter hunt. La Salle took so much of 
their corn as his pressing need required, and 
proceeding on his journey, reached, on the 4th 
of January, the Lake of Peoria, where he fell in 
with a large camp of Illinois Indians. By a dis- 
play of his usual spirit and address, he succeeded 
in forming an alliance with the tribe ; but he had 
the mortification to find himself still followed by 
the bitter enmity of his rivals, who influenced 
the Miamis to send a deputation to the Illinois 
to denounce him as intriguing their ruin. In 
addition to this source of annoyance, he could 
gain no tidings of the Griffin with its rich cargo 
of furs. His men, too, had become mutinous, 
and six of them, deserting the expedition, return- 
ed to Mackinaw. But these multiplied disasters 
only served to display with greater force and 
vividness the heroic nature of the man. Under 
his orders, those who remained faithful to his 
fortunes commenced the construction of a fort, 
to which he gave the pathetic name of Creve- 
coeur — broken heart. 



1680.] RETUKNS TO CANADA. 63 

Still resolutely bent upon prosecuting his en- 
terprise, he sent Hennepin with a small explor- 
ing party to examine the country of the upper 
Mississippi, and leaving a garrison at Crevecoeur, 
directed Tonti to return to the vicinity of the 
Indian village, and fortify there an eminence, 
since known as Rock Fort. In this beautiful 
region he had determined to found a colony ; but 
as both men and means were wanting, he set out 
on foot for Fort Frontenac, a distance of twelve 
hundred miles, attended only by three com- 
panions. Of the particulars of this journey there 
is no record. On reaching his destination, he 
found his affairs in the utmost confusion. The 
loss of the Griffin was confirmed, his agents had 
proved dishonest, his creditors were clamorous, 
and his enemies unceasing in their attacks. Sur- 
mounting all these obstacles, he collected another 
band of adventurers, and having with him mate- 
rials to furnish a brigantine, started again, in 
the summer of 1680, for the Illinois. 

On his arrival at Rock Fort, a more terrible 
disappointment awaited him. During his absence 
the warlike Iroquois had driven the garrisons 
from their posts in the Illinois, and compelled 
them to return to the lakes. Making his way 
back to Canada, the energetic La Salle spent 
the following year in trading to Green Bay, and 
in reorganizing his scattered bands of followers. 

This being at length effected, he sent an ad- 



64 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1682. 

vance party under Tonti to the Chicago River, 
where he joined them with the remainder of his 
company, on the 4th January, 1682. The entire 
party, consisting of twenty-three Frenchmen, of 
whom father Membre was one, and eighteen Mo- 
hican and Abnaki warriors, now commenced 
their journey, travelling on foot over the frozen 
rivers, and dragging after them their canoes, 
baggage, and provisions. Finding the Illinois 
navigable in the vicinity of Fort Crevecoeur, the 
whole company embarked in the canoes, and on 
the 8th of February reached the Mississippi. 
Fearful of encountering with their frail barks 
the masses of floating ice which yet encumbered 
the river, they halted on its banks until the 13th, 
when they committed themselves to the current, 
landing occasionally to hunt, or to visit some 
Indian village. Nothing of interest occurred 
until the 24th, when they reached the Chickasa 
Bluffs. Here Prudhomme, one of the hunters, 
was missed, and apprehensive that he had fallen 
into the hands of the Indians, La Salle ordered 
an intrenched fort to be constructed, and sent 
out parties in search of him. Several Indians 
were taken prisoners, but nothing was heard of 
Prudhomme until the ninth day, when he was 
found by the scouting parties and brought to the 
fort. Here then, near where De Soto embarked 
his forces to cross the river, and in the vicinity 
of the present thriving city of Memphis, arose 



1682.] FIRST STRUCTURE ERECTED. 65 

the first structure erected by European hands 
on the soil of Tennessee. The subsequent ad- 
ventures of the unfortunate La Salle, his indo- 
mitable perseverance, his singular misfortunes, 
and his shameful assassination by the hands of 
his own followers, form no part of this history. 
The honour of having first stood upon the borders 
of Tennessee belongs to the chivalric Spaniard 
and the heroic Frenchman ; but its exploration 
and settlement was left for a people more enter- 
prising than either. 



CHAPTER V. 



Discovery of Old Virginia by Amidas and Barlow — Attempts 
at settlement — The James river colony — Its reverses and 
eventual prosperity — Extension of settlements — The Albe- 
marle region — A patent granted by Charles II. for the pro- 
vince of Carolina — Locke's constitution — Its rejection in 
Albemarle — Culpepper's insurrection — Governor Sothel — 
Ludwell's administration — The Carolinas under separate 
jurisdictions — Cary's insurrection — Arrival of Hyde — War 
with the Tuscaroras — Indian war with South Carolina — ■ 
French in Louisiana — D'Iberville establishes a colony at Bi- 
loxi — Its removal to Mobile Bay — Crozat's grant — Charle- 
ville's trading-house on the Cumberland — French forts in 
the Tennessee country — New Orleans founded — Massacre 
of the French by the Natchez — Province of Georgia settled 
by Oglethorpe — French expedition against the Chickasas — 
Its disastrous failure. 

One hundred years before La Salle descended 
the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois 

6* 



6B HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1665. 

river to the gulf, Amidas and Barlow, with two 
ships fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh, set sail 
from England, and after exploring the coast of 
North Carolina and the islands adjacent, re- 
turned home with an account of their discove- 
ries. To the country thus visited, Elizabeth, 
then queen of England, gave the name of Vir- 
ginia. Various attempts at settlement were 
subsequently made, but none of them succeeded 
until 1607, when the first permanent English 
colony was established on a peninsula formed by 
the James River, and thirty- two miles above its 
mouth. After many reverses, the province of 
Virginia overcame all the obstacles to its pro- 
gress, and increasing steadily in population, 
numbered, in 1671, forty thousand inhabitants. 
Consisting principally of planters, who drew 
their supplies from England, the settlements, 
during this period, had been extended to the 
Potomac on the one hand, and to Albemarle 
Sound on the other. The delicious climate and 
fertile soil of the region occupied by the south- 
ern pioneers, speedily attracted attention in 
England, and on application to Charles II., a 
grant was readily obtained of " all the country, 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean included 
within the thirty-first and thirty-sixth parallels 
of latitude." 

In 1665 a second patent was issued, which 
largely extended the former territorial limits ; 



1677.] ENGLISH IN THE CAROLINAS. 67 

and as the Albemarle region already contained 
quite a number of inhabitants, it was organized 
into a county. The terms of the patent restrict- 
ing the lords proprietaries from enacting any 
laws without the consent of the freemen of the 
new province, the first grand assembly of the 
county of Albemarle met soon after, and adopted 
such regulations as the condition of the people 
required. Some exertion having been made to 
encourage emigration, the population of Albe- 
marle, in 1674, numbered some four thousand 
souls; and as the settlements now extended 
southward to the banks of the Ashley River, all 
the freemen of Carolina were summoned to meet 
at old Charlestown to elect their colonial repre- 
sentatives. Six years later the present Charles- 
ton was founded at the junction of the Ashley 
and Cooper Rivers, and was presently declared 
the capital of Carolina. 

The constitution framed at the request of the 
lords proprietaries by John Locke, so well 
known as the author of the celebrated treatise 
on "the Human Understanding," being utterly 
unsuited to the wants of the people of Carolina, 
the inhabitants of Albemarle refused to adopt 
it ; and finally evinced, in 1677, their abhorrence 
of its complicated provisions, by breaking out 
into open rebellion, imprisoning Millar, presi- 
dent of the council, and the proprietary officers, 
seizing the royal revenue, and setting up an in- 



68 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1693. 

dependent government. At the head of this 
new organization was placed Culpepper, the 
chief insurgent, who retained his office for two 
years. The escape of Millar from durance, and 
his departure for England, led Culpepper thither 
also to defend his conduct. He was successful 
with the lords proprietaries ; but, at the in- 
stance of Millar, he was arrested on a charge of 
treason. The influence of Shaftesbury procured 
his acquittal. In the mean time Sothel, a new 
proprietary, had been appointed governor ; but 
being captured on the high seas by corsairs, he 
did not arrive in Albemarle until 1683. The 
object of Sothel, like that of most of the colonial 
governors in those days, was to enrich himself 
as speedily as possible at the expense of the in- 
habitants, and for five years his exactions were 
borne with more or less patience ; but at the 
end of that time the assembly rose against him, 
and passing a sentence of deposition, compelled 
him to depart from the colony. After an inter- 
regnum of two years, Philip Ludwell was ap- 
pointed governor of Albemarle, and the follow- 
ing year his sway was extended over Southern 
Carolina also. Unable to control the reckless 
and independent spirits over whom he had been 
placed, Ludwell vacated his office in 1693, and 
the government of the provinces was again 
divided — that of Albemarle, or North Carolina, 
being assumed by Thomas Harvey. Under his 



1710.] ENGLISH IN THE CAROLINAS. 69 

administration, and that of Ks immediate succes- 
sors, the colonists continued to prosper in wealth 
and increase in numbers. At length, in 1708^' 
Deputy-Governor Gary, who had been removed 
by the proprietaries for malfeasance in office, 
stirred up the people to revolt ; and, deposing 
Glover, the president of the council, again as- 
sumed the administration of affairs. This vio- 
lent conduct was productive of numerous feuds 
in the colony, which Hyde, newly commissioned 
as governor of the Carolinas, was despatched 
from England, in 1710, to compose. Denounced 
presently by the assembly of Albemarle, Gary, 
who had previously been willing to defer to the 
authority of Hyde, now became alarmed, and 
summoning his adherents, prepared for war. In 
this emergency Hyde called upon Spotswood, 
the governor of Virginia, for assistance ; at the 
approach of which, Gary and his chief abettors 
fled, first westward, but returning presently to 
Virginia, were arrested and sent prisoners to 
England. 

Soon after this disturbance was quelled, North 
Garolina became engaged in war with the Tus- 
carora Indians. At the commencement of hos- 
tilities the frontier settlements suffered greatly ; 
but by the prompt aid of a detachment of South 
Garolina militia, and the assistance of a large 
auxiliary force of friendly Indians, the Tusca- 
roras were besieged in their place of refuge 



70 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1712. 

during the winter of 1712, and compelled to 
submit to terms of peace. These terms being 
violated by the conquerors, the Tuscaroras again 
resumed the hatchet ; but a similar expedition 
being organized against them during the winter 
of 1713, eight hundred were made prisoners and 
sold into slavery. The remainder of the tribe, 
finding themselves harassed without intermis- 
sion, fled northward and joined the Iroquois. 

Scarcely were the frontiers relieved from the 
presence of the Tuscaroras before the confede- 
rated tribes, who had aided in their expulsion, 
were themselves at war with South Carolina. 
Many barbarities were committed at the outset, 
and a large amount of property destroyed ; but 
at length, by the enterprising conduct of Go- 
vernor Craven, the allied warriors were signally 
defeated at Salkehachie, the Yemassees driven 
into Florida, and the Creeks, Cherokees, and 
Catawbas induced to open negotiations for a 
peace. 

In the midst of these provincial fluctuations, the 
French government had been steadily encourag- 
ing the settlement of a colony at the mouth of 
the Mississippi. Although the disappointment 
arising from the failure • of the magnificent 
schemes with which La Salle had dazzled the 
French ministry, in conjunction with the disas- 
trous death of that enterprising adventurer, had 
checked for a season the progress of southern 



1712.] FRENCH IN LOUISIANA. 71 

colonization, the project of connecting the terri- 
ritory of the lakes with that of the Mississippi, 
ibj a chain of military posts, had never been 
abandoned. 

Accordingly, soon after the close of the second 
French war, Lemoine D'Iberville, an intrepid 
Canadian officer, was authorized to found a 
colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. Select- 
ing the shores of the Bay of Biloxi as the site 
of his new settlement, he landed his colonists, 
some two hundred in number ; and after erecting 
some dwellings and a fort, left his brothers Bien- 
ville and Sauvolle to carry out his plans, while he 
returned to France for supplies. 

But the malaria swept off the settlers almost 
as fast as they arrived. Sauvolle, the governor, 
died ; and the surviving colonists, with the excep- 
tion of a few stragglers, fled from the pestilent 
vapours of the Mississippi, and established them- 
selves at the head of Mobile Bay. Even there 
the work of colonization did not prosper ; and in 
1712, Louisiana did not contain more than three 
hundred French inhabitants. 

It was at this time that Crozat, a wealthy 
merchant, obtained a grant of the whole pro- 
vince, together with a monopoly of trade : and 
under his auspices trading-houses were presently 
established on the Mississippi, Alabama, and Red 
Rivers, and enterprising Frenchmen, traversing 
the country of the Chickasas and Choctas, sue- 



72 HISTORY OF TENNl^SEE. [1721. 

cessfully competed witli the English traders from 
Carolina. 

In 1714, Charleville, coming up from New 
Orleans, built himself a trading-house on the 
Cumberland River, not far from the present 
site of Nashville. Two years later, forts were 
erected on the Mississippi near Natchez; on 
the Alabama near Montgomery ; at the mouths 
of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers ; and at 
various points inland where the protection of a 
garrison seemed necessary. Crozat's returns 
falling far short of his expenditures, he resigned 
his patent in 1717, which was transferred, the 
same year, to the Mississippi Company. Eight 
hundred emigrants were immediately sent out 
to colonize a country of which the most glowing 
descriptions were circulated throughout France. 

The choice of governor fell upon Bienville. 
Long resident in Louisiana, and thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the region of the lower Mississippi, 
he set to work with his accustomed alacrity to 
lay the foundation of a great commercial city on 
the left bank of the river, and about one hun- 
dred miles from its mouth. The labour of clear- 
ing the swamp was performed by convicts ; and 
to the cluster of rude cabins which soon after 
arose, Bienville gave the name of New Orleans. 

From this period the province of Louisiana 
commenced to flourish. At the close of 1721 
it contained six thousand inhabitants, one-tenth 



1721.] MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 73 

of whom were negro slaves, imported direct from 
Africa. 

In the meanwhile, the traders of the two na- 
tions were striving for the monopoly of the In- 
dian traffic. Through the influence exerted by 
Bienville and his agents, the Chocta, Arkansa, and 
Natchez Indians inclined to the French interest ; 
but the more pow^erful Chickasas, Creeks, and 
Cherokees were in alliance with the English. 

By the disastrous failure of the gigantic but 
visionary financial scheme under which the asso- 
ciation had been organized, the Mississippi Com- 
pany became greatly embarrassed in its commer- 
cial operations. Three commissioners were,, 
however, presently sent to Louisiana to supervise 
the condition of the colony, and under their 
auspices the seat of government was removed to 
New Orleans, still an insignificant village, con- 
taining a church, a magazine, a hundred cabins, 
and about twice that number of inhabitants. 

But the greatest check to the prosperity of 
the province was yet to come. Bienville, after 
having passed twenty-five years in the service 
of the colony, was removed from his government, 
and ordered to answer in France the aspersions 
of his enemies. The influence of the latter pre- 
vailed for a season. Not only was Bienville de- 
prived of his office, but his nearest kindred also. 

The new governor appointed by the crown was 
Perrier, an officer of considerable ability, but 
7 



74 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1727. 

without that influence with the Indian popula- 
tion which was possessed by Bienville. In 1727, 
the year after his arrival, the encroachments of 
the Carolina traders, and their lucrative traffic 
with the Chickasa Indians, forms the burden of 
a despatch to the minister. "The English," he 
writes, "continue to urge their commerce into 
the very heart of the province. Sixty or 
seventy horses, laden with merchandise, have 
passed into the country of the Chickasas, to 
which nation I have given orders to plunder the 
English of their goods, promising to recompense 
them by a present." 

Fortunately for the English, the suggestion 
was not accepted. The Chickasas remained 
faithful. The massacre of the French by the 
Natchez during the winter of 1729, and the 
fearful retaliation which followed, bound the 
Chickasas still closer in alliance with the Eng- 
lish, at whose request they accorded protection 
and a home to such straggling bands of the 
Natchez as had escaped the war of extermina- 
tion. 

While Governor Perrier was seeking, by every 
means in his power, the total destruction of the 
Natchez, James Oglethorp, an English oflicer 
who had served under Prince Eugene, sailed up 
the Savannah River, landed a party of English 
colonists on Yamacraw Bluff, and, concluding 
treaties with the neighbouring Indians, organized 



1736.] EXPEDITION AGAINST CIIICKASA. 75 

the territory thus acquired into the new English 
province of Georgia. 

Alarmed at this innovation, and at the hostile 
aspect of the Indian nations, the Mississippi 
Company, preferring a lucrative commerce with 
the East Indies to the doubtful prospect of 
eventual profit from Louisiana, surrendered that 
province, in 1732, to the crown of France. 

It was now resolved that a vigorous effort 
should be made to restore French supremacy in 
the valley of the Mississippi, by organizing a 
large army for the purpose of chastising the 
hostile Indians, and especially the Chickasas, 
who, being in alliance with the English, were 
liberally supplied by them with arms and muni- 
tions of war. The services of Bienville were 
again called into requisition ; and invested with 
chief command in the province, that officer ar- 
rived at Mobile in the spring of 1735, after an 
absence of eight years. He was received with 
great joy by the alarmed colonists, who, reassured 
by his presence among them, eagerly assisted in 
promoting his plans for chastising an enemy of 
whom they had so long lived in dread. 

But it was not until the spring of 1736 that 
all his preparations were completed. Having 
previously despatched orders to the younger D'Ar- 
taguette, at that time commanding the French 
troops in Illinois, to descend the river and meet 
him in the Chickasa country, on the 10th of 



76 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1736. 

May, with all the forces that could be mustered 
in the north-west, Bienville put his southern 
army in motion in two divisions, one of which 
embarked at New Orleans in thirty boats, and 
sailed for the appointed rendezvous some thne 
during the month of March ; the other division 
leaving Mobile for Tombigby in a similar man- 
ner during the early part of April. 

D'Artaguette, accompanied by Yincennes, a 
brave young Canadian ; by father Sdnat, a Jesuit ; 
one hundred and thirty French soldiers and 
volunteers, and three hundred and sixty Indian 
warriors, descending the Mississippi to the low- 
est Chickasa bluff, marched slowly to the sources 
of the Yalobusha, among which he encamped on 
the 9th of May, as by previous agreement with 
Bienville. For eleven days he remained at this 
place, expecting either to form a junction with 
Bienville, or to receive reinforcements from other 
detachments which were known to be on their 
way. \Yeary with waiting, and unable any longer 
to restrain the impatience of his Indian allies, 
who, representing that the nearest Chickasa town 
was inhabited by refugee Natchez, demanded to 
be led to the attack or suffered to return home. 
Reluctantly yielding to what appeared to be the 
general wish, D'Artaguette ordered an advance, 
and on the 20th of May the army arrived within 
a mile of the Indian village. Leaving his bag- 
gage at tiiis point, in charge of thirty men. 



1736.] DEFEAT OF d'aktaguette. 77 

D'Artaguette pressed rapidly forward with the 
remainder of his command. The impetuosity of 
his attack promised at first the most brilliant 
success. The Chickasas, driven from their out- 
posts, fled across a neighbouring eminence, 
closely followed by the French, who suddenly 
found themselves drawn into, an ambush, and 
exposed to the concentrated fire of five hundred 
Indians, rendered still more effective by the sup- 
port of some thirty English traders. Thrown 
into disorder by this unexpected attack, the con- 
flict was fierce but brief. A large number of 
the French officers had fallen at the first fire. 
D'Artaguette, himself badly wounded, made a 
desperate attempt to retrieve the fortune of the 
day ; but the greater part of his allies had already 
taken to flight, and finding those who still fought 
boldly at his side gradually becoming fewer in 
number, he reluctantly ordered a retreat to his 
camp. By extraordinary exertions, a part of 
his troops succeeded in cutting their way through 
the enveloping ranks of the enemy ; but the chi- 
valric D'Artaguette, Lieutenant Vincennes, two 
other ofiicers, and nineteen men were taken pri- 
soners. The Jesuit missionary. Father Senat, 
who could have made his escape, voluntarily 
shared the captivity of his companions, believing 
it his duty to remain. 

Retarded by unavoidable delays, the forces 
under Bienville did not reach the upper waters 

7* 



78 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1736. 

of the Tombigby until two days after the defeat 
of D'Artaguette. Disembarking in the vicinity 
of the place now known as Cotton Gin Port, 
nearly two more days were consumed in erecting 
a picketed station for the reception of the artil- 
lery and baggage ; and it was not until the even- 
ing of the 25th that the army encamped on the 
prairie within three miles of the principal Chickasa 
village. The original determination of Bienville 
was to avoid, for the present, this village, and 
by a circuitous route fall suddenly upon the one 
inhabited by the Natchez, which lay a short dis- 
tance beyond. But this design being overruled 
by his Chocta allies and the eagerness of his own 
officers, he ordered his nephew, the Chevalier 
Noyan, to advance at the head of some three 
hundred men, and commence an attack. 

In the gray dawn of the following morning 
this strong detachment, accompanied by a large 
number of Chocta warriors, approached silently 
the clustering huts of the Chickasas, over w^hich, 
to the great surprise of the French, floated 
easily the English flag in the fragrant summer 
air. Within those rude walls also were English- 
men, traders, under whose directions the Chick- 
asas had strongly fortified their position. Thus 
palisaded and intrenched, and animated to in- 
creased daring by the recent success of the 
Natchez, the crouching warriors awaited the 
coming of the French, who, under cover of a 



1736.] DEFEAT OF DE NOYAN. 79 

line of negroes, protected by mantelets, were 
moving steadily to the assault. At the first fire 
from the intrenchment the negroes fled ; but the 
French dashing forward, led by the grenadiers, 
entered the village, carried several cabins, and 
wrapped others in flames. This brilliant exploit 
had not been achieved without great loss. De 
Contrecoeur and De Lusser, two brave and ac- 
complished ofiicers, had been shot dead ; and the 
greater portion of the troops, becoming alarmed 
at the thinning of their ranks, sought shelter 
within the houses they had taken. Finding it 
impossible to prevail upon these men to renew 
the attack, De Noyan gathered around him a 
few brave spirits, and with the assistance of his 
gallant officers determined to make a desperate 
assault upon the principal fort. The arrange- 
ments were scarcely completed before a terrible 
fire from behind picketed intrenchments, from 
loop, and door, and angle, was poured upon the 
assembled ranks, which wounded nearly all the 
officers and a number of the men. De Noyan, 
himself wounded, still endeavoured to maintain 
the ground he had won ; but having lost control 
of his own soldiers, and being wholly unsupport- 
ed by the lukewarm Choctas, he was constrained 
to throw himself into the cabins on the outskirts 
of the village, while he sent to Bienville for re- 
lief. A reinforcement of eighty men was imme- 
diately forwarded ; but even this force scarcely 



80 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1736. 

sufficed to extricate the French from the diffi- 
culties by which they were surrounded. In the 
midst of their success the Chickasas acted pru- 
dently. Fully conscious that they could not 
hope to succeed in an attack upon the French 
on the prairie, they wisely remained behind the 
cover of their fortifications, and suffered De 
Noyan to retreat to the camp without further 
molestation. 

The next morning the French beheld the muti- 
lated fragments of their unfortunate countrymen 
suspended, in barbarous derision, upon high 
poles within the Chickasa intrenchments ; and 
had not Bienville been justly doubtful of the 
fidelity of his Indian allies, another attempt 
would have been made to capture the place. 
Oppressed with grief and indignation, he ordered 
litters to be prepared for the wounded; and as 
soon as these were ready, the troops set out on 
their return to the Tombigby. Hastily dis- 
mantling the stockade at this place, and sinking 
his artillery in the river, Bienville dismissed the 
Choctas, and descending the stream with the 
remainder of his command, reached Mobile about 
the od of June. 

The retreat of Bienville sealed the fate of 
D'Artaguette and his companions. Up to this 
period their wounds had been carefully tended, 
and their wants hospitably provided for; but no 
sooner did the French flotilla descend the shal- 



1740.] STATIONS ABANDONED. ' 81 

low stream of the Tombigby, than the Chickasas 
and Natchez, brought D'Artaguette, Father 
Senat, the brave Vincennes, and fifteen others, 
to an open space adjoining their village, and* 
binding them to stakes, burned them slowly and 
deliberately to death. 

Smarting under two disgraceful defeats, and 
inflamed with indignation at the cruelties prac- 
tised upon their gallant but unfortunate friends, 
it was not long before the French people 
projected another expedition against the Chick- 
asas. 

Three years, however, were suffered to pass 
away before the troops destined for this enter- 
prise were assembled at Fort Assumption, on 
the bluff where Memphis now stands, and already 
made famous by remembrances of De Soto and 
La Salle. Here, gradually wasting away under 
the diseases common to a southern climate, they 
remained inactive until the spring of 1740, when 
a weak fragment of what had once been an im- 
posing army of thirty-seven hundred men, was 
directed to march once more against the Chick- 
asa towns ; but being met by deputies suing for 
peace, Celeron, the commander, eagerly seized 
the opportunity of concluding a treaty upon 
more favourable terms than he had the power 
to enforce. Henceforth the Chickasas remained 
in undisputed possession of their country. Not- 
withstanding the peace, war-parties of refugee 



82 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1740. 

Natchez still continued to cut off the French 
traders, whenever an opportunity occurred, until 
the latter, finding themselves left unprotected 
by their government, were forced to abandon 
their stations between the Cumberland and the 
Mississippi, and at length none but an Indian 
foot traversed the region of Tennessee. 



V 



CHAPTER yi. 

Waning influence of the French — Progress of Georgia — War 
between England, France and Spain — Virginia boundary- 
extended — Settlements on the Holston, Yadkin and Catawba 
— French in the valley of the Ohio — Mission of George 
Washington — Fort Duquesne — Skirmish at Great Meadows 
— Surrender of Fort Necessity — Arrival of Braddock — His 
defeat and death — Earl of Loudoun — Forts Prince George, 
Dobbs and Loudoun built — Campaign of 1758 — Capture 
of Fort Duquesne — Trouble with the Cherokees — Indian 
negotiations for peace — Conduct of Lyttleton — Massacre of 
Indian hostages — Cherokee war — Montgomery marches 
against the Indian towns — Relieves Fort Prince George — 
Battle of Etchoe — Surrender of Fort Loudoun^ — '^.Tassacre 
of prisoners — Generosity of AttakulIa-kuUa — Advance of 
Grant — Second battle of Etchoe — Peace. 

Wpien it became known that the warlike 
Chickasas had been able to resist, successfully, 
all the forces which France was capable, at that 
time, of bringing against them, the neighbouring 



1748.] PROGRESS OF GEORGIA, ETC. 83 

tribes preferred courting an alliance with the 
prosperous governments of Carolina and Virginia, 
rather than with their weaker European neigh- 
bours. 

Georgia, too, though struggling under the 
usual embarrassments incidental to a new settle- 
ment, had already advanced her outposts to 
Augusta, where, in 1740, a fort was erected, 
and where a village presently sprung up, which 
speedily grew into importance as a trading 
station. 

Another reason which led to the neglect of 
Louisiana, arose from the necessity of pro- 
tecting the more important dependency of Ca- 
nada. The war which broke out in 1740 be- 
tween England and Spain, involved, in 1744, 
France also as an ally of the latter power ; and 
although, with the exception of the capture of 
Louisburg by the New England troops, neither 
of the belligerents displayed much energy or 
military skill, the danger which menaced the 
French possessions in the north prevented the 
government from affording that assistance to its 
southern province which its precarious condition 
BO much needed. 

In 1748 this war was terminated by the peace 
of Aix-la-Chapelle. In the mean time Virginia 
had extended her western boundary by purchas- 
ing from the Iroquois their right, as conquerors, 
to the territory beyond the mountains ; and, in 



84 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1749. 

1749, a joint commission, authorized for that 
purpose by the respective legislatures of Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina, continued the bound- 
ary line between the two provinces to the Steep 
Rock on the Holston River. The rapid increase 
of population had rendered this step impera- 
tively necessary. Already a few resolute Vir- 
ginians had cleared small tracts of land on the 
borders of the Holston ; and a few years later 
several hardy families of pioneers from North 
Carolina, settled upon the fertile lands between 
the Yadkin and the Catawba. 

But while the tide of population was slowly 
advancing toward the borders of Tennessee, and 
English traders were acquiring almost a mono- 
poly of the traffic with the southern Indians, the 
French continued to claim, by right of discovery, 
the fertile regions watered by the Ohio and Mis- 
sissippi. To perfect their title to the valley of 
the Ohio, Galissoni^re, governor-general of Ca- 
nada, despatched an officer and a party of 
soldiers, during the summer of 1749, to bury 
leaden plates engraven with the arms of France 
at the mouths of the principal rivers, and to 
take possession of the country in the name of 
Louis XV. Four years later, when the incorpo- 
ration of the Ohio Company became known, a 
further effort was made to restrain the advance 
of the English into the north-western territory, 
by building forts at Erie, on French Creek, and 



1T54.] FORT DUQUESNE. 85 

on the banks of the Alleghany River. Alarmed 
for the safety of the frontier settlements, Go- 
vernor Dinwiddle of Virginia, purchased of the 
Indians that piece of land upon which Pittsburg 
now stands ; and while waiting permission from 
England to build a fort there, despatched the 
youthful George Washington to hold a conference 
with the Ohio Indians, and to demand of the 
French commander at Fort le Boeuf, on French 
Creek, the withdrawal of his forces, and their 
return into Canada. This dangerous mission 
was successfully accomplished ; but, as the 
French refused to retire, a detachment of men 
was presently sent to the forks of the Ohio, to 
construct a fort at that place. Being driven off 
in the spring of 1754 by the advance of a French 
flotilla, they retreated up the Monongahela, 
while the invaders proceeded to complete the 
unfinished works, to which they presently gave 
the name of Fort Duquesne. 

In the mean while, Washington, commissioned 
as lieutenant-colonel, was hastening to the Ohio 
at the head of three companies of Virginians. 
He had scarcely reached Wills Creek before 
he received tidings of the advance of the French, 
and their possession of the works he was hasten- 
ing to defend. A skirmish followed soon after, 
at Great Meadows, in which a French detach- 
ment was defeated and its commander, Jumon- 
ville, killed. Washington being reinforced, threw 



Sg HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1756. 

up a stockade fort at Great Meadows, into which 
he was compelled to retire by the advance of a 
superior force of French and Indians. After a 
spirited, but unavailing defence, honourable 
terms of capitulation were proposed and accept- 
ed, and the Virginians, marching out with their 
arms and baggage, retired across the mountains 
to Wills Creek. 

Provoked by these encroachments, and by 
subsequent acts of hostility. Great Britain, pre- 
vious to declaring war against France, despatch- 
ed General Braddock to America, in the spring 
of 1755, as commander-in-chief of the royal and 
provincial forces. The French government was 
equally active. While advancing against Fort 
Duquesne, the English troops were drawn into 
an ambush, and routed with great slaughter. 
Braddock himself was mortally wounded. Two 
days after the battle, he was buried by the 
wayside, in the vicinity of the Fort at Great 
Meadows. The following spring, war was openly 
declared ; and in July, the Earl of Loudoun 
assumed command of the British forces in 
America. 

Hostilities were no sooner commenced than 
French emissaries scattered themselves among 
the Indian tribes friendly to the English, and 
endeavoured to detach them from their alliance. 
Fully conscious how much the safety of the 
scattered settlements on the western frontiers 



1758.] FORT ERECTED ON THE RIVER. 87 

depended upon the fidelity of the neighbouring 
tribes, Governor Glen, of South Carolina, at- 
tended in person a grand council of the Chero- 
kees, and, renewing with them a treaty of peace, 
obtained at the same time a cession of consider- 
able territory. Not long after the conclusion 
of this treaty he erected Fort Prince George, 
on the head-waters of the Savannah River, and 
in close proximity to the Indian town of Keowee. 
Fort Dobbs was also constructed about the same 
time, under directions from the governor of North 
Carolina, as a security to the settlers on the 
Yadkin ; to which Loudoun presently added an- 
other fort on the Tennessee River, twenty-five 
miles south of the present town of Knoxville. 
Under the protection of its garrison, consisting 
of two hundred British regulars, commanded by 
Captain Demere, clustered the cabins of the first 
Anglo-Saxon inhabitants of Tennessee. 

The wisdom and energy displayed by the elder 
Pitt in providing for the campaign of 1758, in- 
spired the provincials with new hopes, and in- 
duced them to second his efforts with more than 
ordinary unanimity. 

While Abercrombie marched against Crown 
Point and Ticonderoga, General Forbes was di- 
rected to cross the mountains, and, with a mixed 
command of regulars, provincials, and Chero- 
kees, attempt the conquest of Fort Duquesne. 
The attack of Abercrombie was signally repelled 



88 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1758. 

by the active and courageous Montcalm; but 
the brilliant exploit of Colonel Bradstreet in 
surprising Fort Frontenac, cut off the supplies 
of the French garrisons in the valley of the 
Ohio, and led to the abandonment of Fort Du- 
quesne on the approach of General Forbes. 

But the prospect of peace which the posses- 
sion of Fort Duquesne seemed to promise to the 
inhabitants of the frontiers, was rendered more 
remote than ever by an incident which grew out 
of its capture. The Cherokee warriors, who had 
accompanied the army during its march to the 
Ohio, finding themselves coldly regarded now 
that their services were no longer needed, re- 
solved to return to their homes. While travelling 
through the wilderness of western Virginia, they 
carried off with them a number of horses belonging 
to remote settlers, to replace those they had lost 
during the expedition. The backwoodsmen armed 
themselves and followed in pursuit ; and in the 
skirmishes which ensued, several of the Chero- 
kees were killed. War parties were immediately 
organized to retaliate; and the families of the 
borderers, driven from their homes, were com- 
pelled to take refuge in forts and block-houses. 
Two soldiers at Tellico, and several belonging to 
the garrison at Fort Loudoun, were surprised 
and slain. Notwithstanding this sanguinary out- 
break, a considerable portion of the Cherokee 
nation remained friendly to the English ; and 



1759,] TROUBLE WITH THE CHEROKEES. 89 

toward tlie close of the year a deputation, con- 
sisting of six chieftains, proceeded to Charleston 
to negotiate for a peace. They were answered 
by a proclamation from Governor Lyttleton, 
calling out the militia. While hopes were 
yet entertained that tranquillity would be re- 
stored, the fierce anger of the upper Chero- 
kees was again aroused by a demand which 
was make upon them for the surrender of their 
chiefs, and by the arbitrary conduct of Coytmore, 
the commandant at Fort Prince George, in inter- 
cepting supplies. No discrimination being made 
in favour of the friendly towns, the latter sent a 
remonstrance to Lyttleton, who returned a 
haughty reply, and, in opposition to the more 
prudent judgment of the Carolina legislature, 
continued his preparations for war. 

Still anxious to compose the existing difi'er- 
ences without a resort to arms, a deputation of 
thirty chiefs from the upper and lower towns, 
headed by Occonostota, one of their most re- 
nowned warriors, presented themselves before 
Lyttleton and proffered friendship. " I love the 
white people," said Occonostota ; <■'■ they and the 
Indians shall not hurt one another. I reckon 
myself as one with you." 

''I am going with a great many of my war- 
riors to your nation," replied Lyttleton, ''in 
order to demand satisfaction of them. If you 
will not give it when I come to your nation, I 

8^t 



9Q HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1759* 

shall take it." He closed by offering the chief- 
tains safe conduct by the way. False to his 
promise, he had no sooner reached the Congaree, 
where his troops were assembled, than he arrest- 
ed the deputies and carried them prisoners to 
Fort Prince George. At this place he liberated 
Occonostota; but to give some colour of plausi- 
bility to his dishonourable breach of faith, he 
obtained the signatures of six of the captive 
chieftains, to an agreement that the rest of their 
companions should remain as hostages at Fort 
Prince George, until twenty-four Indians should 
be surrendered for execution, or otherwise, in 
retaliation for the lives which had been sacrificed 
during the outbreak. Congratulating himself 
upon the success of his duplicity, he returned to 
Charleston and disbanded his army. He had 
scarcely left Fort Prince George before hostili- 
ties recommenced. Burning for revenge, Occo- 
nostota immediately placed himself at the head 
of his indignant warriors, and investing the fort 
decoyed Coytmore, hj a stratagem, beyond the 
reach of its guns, shot him dead, and severely 
wounded the two lieutenants by whom he was 
accompanied. Expecting an immediate assault, 
the alarmed garrison attempted to put the host- 
ages in irons. The chieftains resented this in- 
dignity, and in the struggle that followed stabbed 
three of the soldiers, upon which the companions 



1760.] CHEROKEE WAR. 91; 

of the latter fell upon the prisoners and put 
them all to death. 

The whole Cherokee nation, now no longer 
divided, declared at once unanimously for war. 
Large parties of warriors immediately spread 
themselves along the frontiers, leaving sangui- 
nary ' tokens of their presence wherever they 
went. Supplied with arms and ammunition from 
Louisiana, and calling in the assistance of the 
neighbouring nations, they cut off all communi- 
cation with Fort Loudoun, and laid desolate all 
the frontier settlements with the crimson toma- 
hawk and the burning brand. 

Unable singly to cope with the mountain war- 
riors, whose implacable hostility had been pro- 
voked by the treachery of Lyttleton, messengers 
were hastily despatched to Virginia and North 
Carolina for assistance, and to Amherst at New 
York for a detachment of British regulars. 
Twelve hundred of the latter were immediately 
embarked for Charleston, under the command of 
Colonel Montgomery, who received orders to 
chastise the enemy, and return in time to assist 
in the invasion of Canada. Hastening to the 
rendezvous at the Congaree, Montgomery form- 
ed a junction with the provincial forces. By an 
expeditious march from that place, he entered 
the Cherokee country, during the early part of 
June, 1760, surprised the town of Keowee, put 
nearly all its male inhabitants to the sword, and 



92 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1760. 

pushed forward the same night to Estatoe. After 
burning the town, which had been abandoned by 
the inhabitants, he proceeded to Qualatchee and 
Conasatchee, which with every other village 
through which he subsequently passed he reduced 
to a heap of ruins. Having thus laid waste all 
the settlements of the lower Creeks, he marched 
to the relief of Fort Prince George. When 
this was successfully accomplished, he despatch- 
ed messengers to the upper and middle Creeks, 
offering to treat of peace. Receiving no re- 
sponse, he crossed the mountains to relieve Fort 
Loudoun, which Occonostota had closely invest- 
ed, and entering the valley settlements on the 
Tennessee River, proceeded, on the morning of 
the 27th of June, against the town of Etchoe. 
Within five miles of the town his course lay 
parallel with the stream, which at this point me- 
andered through a plain, covered densely with 
brushwood, and flanked on both sides by rugged 
hills. At an order from Montgomery, the ratn- 
gers advanced to scour the thickets, when a 
heavy fire from a large force of Cherokees, con- 
cealed in ambush, killed Captain Morrison and 
wounded several of his men. The grenadiers 
and light companies were immediately ordered 
to advance, supported on their right and left 
flanks by the Royal Scots and the Highlanders. 
These three divisions pressed steadily forward, 
and after a severe conflict, which resulted in the 



1760.] SLAUGHTER OP TROOPS. 93 

loss of ninety-seven men in killed and wounded, 
finally succeeded in routing the enemy. Moving 
cautiously in pursuit, Montgomery continued his 
march toward Etchoe, which he reached about 
midnight. Finding himself in the midst of a 
country admirably adapted for defence, and with 
a repulsed but unconquered enemy hovering in 
large numbers around him, Montgomery was 
forced to abandon the attempt to relieve Fort 
Loudoun, and return with his wounded to Fort 
Prince George. 

Cut off from all hopes of succour by the re- 
treat of Montgomery, the half-famished garrison 
at Fort Loudoun sent Captain Stuart to Chote, a 
neighbouring Indian town, with a proposal to 
capitulate, on condition that all who were within 
the works should be permitted to retire, under 
the safe conduct of an escort, to Fort Prince 
George. The terms being agreed to, the fort 
was evacuated on the Tth of August. Accom- 
panied by Occonostota, and a large detachment 
of warriors, the soldiers and refugee settlers, to 
the number of two hundred, set out on their 
journey. Deserted at Tellico by their Indian 
guards, they were attacked the next morning by 
a large force of Cherokees, led by Occonostota, 
which killed Demere, two other officers, and 
twenty-three privates, in retaliation for the 
treacherous murder of the imprisoned chieftains 
at Fort Prince George. The rest of the garri- 



94 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1761. 

son were taken prisoners and carried back to 
Fort Loudoun. 

When the aged chieftain Attakulla-kulla 
heard that his friend Captain Stuart was among 
those whose lives had been spared, he hastened 
to the fort and purchased him of his captor, at 
the expense of his rifle, his clothes, and every 
thing he could command. Learning soon after 
that Occonostota had threatened to burn all his 
prisoners unless Stuart would consent to work 
the artillery at the contemplated siege of Eort 
Prince George, the generous-hearted old chief 
carried off his prisoner, under the pretence of 
hunting, and plunging into the forest, travelled 
with him rapidly for nine days, through a wil- 
derness rarely trodden by the foot of man, until 
they reached the Holston Kiver, where they 
encountered a party of Virginians advancing to 
the relief of Fort Loudoun. 

Encouraged to persevere in their hostilities 
by the presence of French emissaries, the 
Cherokee war parties continued to lay waste 
the frontiers until the spring of 1761, when the 
reduction of Canada enabled Amherst to re- 
spond to the call of the southern provinces for 
military assistance, by despatching Colonel Grant 
with a large body of regulars to co-operate with 
the provincial levies. 

With this mixed force, amounting in the 
aggregate to twenty-six hundred men, Grant 



1761.] PEACE KESTORED. 95 

marched from Fort Prince George on the 7th 
of June ; and on the 10th discovered the enemy- 
posted upon the hill-sides and among the thick- 
ets of the narrow defile where Montgomery 
had purchased so severe a victory the previous 
year. After three hours hard fighting the 
Cherokees were driven from the ground, and 
the army, pushing forward into the heart of the 
territory, remained there for thirty days, burn- 
ing the villages and destroying the granaries 
and cornfields. Grant then returned to Fort 
Prince George, where Attakulla-kulla, accom- 
panied by a number of chiefs, presently arrived 
to sue for a peace. Honourable conditions were 
offered and accepted, and the southern borderers 
were once more at liberty to return to their 
farms and pursue their accustomed labours. 



HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. £1T63. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Pf6ssure of borderers upon the Cherokee country — Exploring 
parties in Tennessee — Wallen's hunters — Boone's — Hender- 
son employs Boone to explore Eastern Tennessee — Disco- 
very of Kentucky — Indian complaints— Royal proclamation 
— Disregarded by the pioneers — Scaggins explores the Lower 
Cumberland — Remonstrance by the Iroquois — Council at 
Fort Stanwix — Cession of lands south of the Ohio — Chero- 
kee council at Hard Labour — Settlements on the Holston — 
The Long Hunters explore Kentucky — Increase of settlers 
at Watauga — They establish a local government — The com- 
missioners for Watauga — John Sevier — Extension of Vir- 
ginia boundary — The Watauga lands leased of the Chero- 
kees — An Indian murdered — Danger of the settlers — Hero- 
ism of Robertson — The north-western tribes — Troubles with 
the borderers — The massacres on the Ohio by Cresap and 
Greathouse — Indian war — Dunmore's campaign — 'Battle of 
Point Pleasant — Treaty of peace. 

But the expeditions of Montgomery and Grant 
were productive of more serious consequences to 
the Cherokees than the burning of their villages 
and the loss of a small number of their warriors. 
By these inroads the hardy and restless popula- 
tion of the frontiers obtained a knowledge of a 
fertile region of which they were not slow to 
profit. Traders with trains of pack-horses, 
whose jingling bells sounded strangely musical 
in the heart of the primeval forest, were the 
first to reap advantage of the peace, by barter- 



1764.] EXPLORING PARTIES. 97 

ing their mercliandise for the rich peltries of a 
territory abounding in game. Hunters and trap- 
pers followed ; and presently came armed bands 
of explorers, from Virginia and Carolina, who, 
entering the Cherokee country, gave the earliest 
English names to the mountains and rivers, and 
returning to their homes encumbered with the 
spoils of the chase, infused a similar spirit of 
adventure into the hearts of others. 

Immediately on the close of the Cherokee 
war, a company of nineteen men from Virginia, 
among whom were Wallen, Cox, and Scaggs, 
crossed the northern boundary of Tennessee, 
and hunted for eighteen months upon Clinch and 
Powell Rivers. Encouraged by their success, 
they extended their range during the two follow- 
ing years to the banks of the Cumberland. 

Contemporaneous with them a party from the 
settlement upon the Yadkin was exploring the 
country between the two forks of the Holston, 
under the guidance of young Daniel Boone, who 
had hunted upon the Watauga the preceding 
year. The local reputation of Boone as a da- 
ring and successful pioneer, led to his being em- 
ployed, in 1764, to explore a country which was 
already beginning to attract the attention of emi- 
grants. This commission emanated from an as- 
sociation of land speculators, at the head of 
which was Richard Henderson, a man of great 
ambition, who had risen from an humble station 

9 



98 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1764. 

in life to tlie dignity of associate cHef-judge of 
North Carolina. Attended by his kinsman, 
Samuel Calloway, Boone traversed the north- 
eastern party of Tennessee, and ascending a 
spur of the Cumberland Mountains, saw, with 
mingled astonishment and delight, the numerous 
herds of buffalo which thronged the plains of 
Kentucky. In a burst of irrepressible enthu- 
siasm, Boone appropriated them all. "I am 
richer," said he, "than the man mentioned in 
Scripture, who owned the cattle on a thousand 
hills — I own the wild beasts of more than a 
thousand valleys." But the time for taking ad- 
vantage of these discoveries was not yet come. 
The Indians had already complained of repeated 
intrusions upon their hunting grounds ; and to 
quiet their apprehensions, a royal proclamation 
had been issued, forbidding the provincials from 
making any settlements upon lands west of the 
mountains, and claiming for the crown the sole 
right to purchase territory from the Indians. 
At the same time, Captain Stuart, the friend of 
Attakulla-kulla, was appointed to the office of 
Indian agent for the southern district. But the 
royal mandate was little likely to be respected 
by men who had passed their lives on the borders 
of the wilderness. They had discovered that 
the whole of that vast tract of country stretch- 
ing from the Cumberland Mountains westward 
to the Mississippi, and northward to the Ohio, 



1766.] INDIAN COMPLAINTS. 99 

was entirely uninhabited, and caring nothing for 
vague titles of ownership, pressed resolutely for- 
ward to take possession. They too had their 
claims, for many of them had been soldiers in 
the war which had stripped France of all her 
North American possessions with the exception 
of a small portion of Louisiana, and were au- 
thorized by their respective provinces to occupy 
these lands under their military warrants. 

The favourable reports brought back by Boone 
influenced Henderson to make further explora- 
tions, and under his directions, Henry Scaggins, 
and other hunters, examined the country as far as 
the Lower Cumberland. In 1766 a small party, 
led by Colonel James Smith, thoroughly explored 
the country between the Tennessee and Cumber- 
land Rivers, from Stone's River to the Ohio. 
Other exploring parties speedily followed, while 
the border population, pressing forward, began 
to open settlements on the Kanawha and the 
Holston. Against these continued encroach- 
ments upon their hunting grounds, the southern 
Indians repeatedly complained, but could obtain 
no redress ; but when the Iroquois, who laid 
claim to the territory by right of conquest, 
formally remonstrated, the question became one 
of too serious a nature to be slighted. Sir 
William Johnson accordingly received orders 
from England to treat with the northern con- 
federacy for the purchase of their lands ; and at 



100 HISTOET OF TENNESSEE. [1771. 

a council held at Fort Stanwix, toward the 
close of October, 1768, the Iroquois ceded to 
Great Britain all their claim to the country 
south of the Ohio River. Ten days before the 
delegates assembled at Fort Stanwix, the Chero- 
kee Indians met Stuart at Hard Labour in Caro- 
lina, and agreed to extend the south-western 
boundary of Virginia, from the Holston River 
to the mouth of the Kanawha. Companies were 
immediately organized for the purpose of pur- 
chase and settlement ; and while these were dis- 
puting among themselves concerning the invasion 
of each other's rights, a number of pioneer fami- 
lies quietly crossed the boundaries of North 
Carolina and founded, on the banks of the Hols- 
ton, the first permanent settlement in Tennessee. 
These were followed so rapidly by others, that 
within a period of six Aveeks all the choicest 
lands on the north fork of the Holston were ta- 
ken up. One daring adventurer. Captain Wil- 
liam Bean, advanced still deeper into the wilder- 
ness, and built his station on Boone's Creek, a 
tributary of the Watauga. In the spring of 
1770, a band of hunters, led by Colonel James 
Knox, assembled from the valleys of the Clinch 
and the Holston, and traversing the sources of 
the Cumberland, explored the middle and south- 
ern regions of Kentucky. Returning in 1771, 
these men, known as the Long Hunters, gave 
such glowing accounts of the mildness of the 



1772.] JOHN SEVIER. 101 

climate and the fertility of the soil, that survey- 
ing parties were sent down the Ohio to locate 
lands upon its southern border. 

In the mean time, owing partly to local dis- 
turbances in the Carolinas, and partly to the 
growing difficulties between England and the 
provinces on the question of taxation, the popu- 
lation on the Holston and Watauga had increased 
so rapidly that, in 1772, the settlers assembled in 
convention and established a local government. 
By general agreement five commissioners were 
chosen, in whom were vested legislative, judicial, 
and executive powers. The chairman of the 
committee was Colonel John Carter, a native of 
Virginia. His associates were James and Charles 
Kobertson, Zachariah Isbell, and John Sevier. 
The latter was of French extraction, the original 
name of the family being Xavier. His ancestors 
being Huguenots, were driven by persecution to 
seek a refuge in London, where Valentine Xavier, 
the father of the Watauga commissioner, was 
born. Emigrating to the colonies early in the 
eighteenth century, he first settled in Virginia, 
where, in 1740, on the borders of the Shenan- 
doah, John Sevier was born. In 1769, the latter, 
already the head of a family consisting of a deli- 
cate wife and six children, migrated to the banks 
of the Holston, where, with his father and bro- 
ther, he presently took up his abode, the perma- 
nence of which, henceforth, was only broken by 
9* 



102 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1772. 

occasional visits to his family in Virginia. With 
a hetter knowledge of men than of books, for 
his learning was scanty ; active, fluent, bold, and 
generous, the "portly young stranger from Wil- 
liamsburg" was not long in acquiring the esteem 
of the rough borderers, among whom he presently 
rose to the rank of a leader, and rivalled James 
Robertson in popularity. 

By a treaty, which was ratified in 1772, 
the boundary of Virginia was considerably ex- 
tended; but as the settlement at Watauga was 
still beyond provincial jurisdiction, and was an 
admitted encroachment upon Indian soil, the in- 
habitants were ordered by Cameron, the deputy 
superintendent, to retire across the borders. 
But pioneers, when once in possession of a 
country, were never known to retrace their steps ; 
and a mandate so imperative might have been 
productive of serious results, if the Cherokees 
had not consented to lease, for a term of ten 
years, the lands already occupied. Unhappily, 
the ratification of the treaty led to the commis- 
sion of an outrage which, for a time, threatened 
to involve the people of Watauga in the horrors 
of an Indian war. During the sports and fes- 
tivities which marked the occasion, an Indian 
was slain by a party of lawless men from Virgi- 
nia. This cold-blooded assassination, so atro- 
cious and unjustifiable, created the greatest com- 
. motion among the settlers, who apprehended, 



1774.] INDIAN WAR. 103 

and not without reason, that a sanguinary retali- 
ation would follow. The danger was, however, 
averted by the courage and heroism of Robert- 
son ; who, at the risk of his own life, immediately 
set out for the principal Cherokee town, and 
succeeded in exonerating his people from any 
participation in the murder. 

But if the southern Indians were content for 
a season to maintain pacific relations with the 
whites, it was far otherwise with the tribes of 
the north-west. The Shawanese and Mingoes 
had long viewed with irrepressible feelings of 
indignation the numerous parties of pioneers 
which, floating down the Ohio, traversed the 
territory on its borders, as surveyors or hunters, 
and marked out the choicest lands for subsequent 
occupation. Occasional collisions, in which blood 
was spilled on both sides, increased their hatred 
of the intruders ; but no general declaration of 
war took place until 1774, when armed detach- 
ments 'of lawless frontiersmen, under Cresap and 
Greathouse, wantonly attacked, on two separate 
occasions, a number of inoffensive Indians, and 
indiscriminately massacred the whole. Logan, 
a celebrated Mingo chief, whose family Great- 
house had exterminated, instantly flew to arms, 
and being joined soon after by roving bands of 
Iroquois, Shawanese, Delawares, and "VVyandots, 
commenced a sanguinary and destructive war- 
fare upon the inhabitants of western Virginia. 



104 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1774. 

To afford a temporary check to these alarming 
inroads, Governor Dunmore despatched a body of 
troops under Colonel McDonald, against the In- 
dian towns on the Muskingum. This expedition 
producing no beneficial results, Dunmore pre- 
pared to take the field in person. His army 
consisted of twenty-seven hundred men, organ- 
ized into two divisions, one of which was com- 
posed of levies from southern and western Vir- 
ginia, and the other of regular troops and vo- 
lunteers from the northern and eastern counties. 
In the first division, commanded by General An- 
drew Lewis, was a company of volunteers from 
east Tennessee, the captain of which was Evan 
Shelby; his son, Isaac Shelby, the future go- 
vernor of Kentucky, serving under him as lieu- 
tenant. Among the orderly sergeants were 
James Robertson and Valentine Sevier. 

Quitting, on the 11th of September, the place 
of rendezvous in the valley region of Green 
Brier, General Lewis marched his division, 
through a rugged and untrodden wilderness, to 
Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanawha, 
where he expected to form a junction with the 
forces under Dunmore; but finding the flotilla 
of the governor had not yet arrived, he halted 
his men and encamped. On the 9th he received 
instructions from Dunmore, who was then at the 
mouth of the Big Hockhocking, to cross the 
Ohio with his division, and join him at the 



1774.] BATTLE OF POINT PLEASANT. 105 

Shawanese towns on the Scioto. The following 
morning, while the troops were in the act of 
breaking up their encampment, Robertson and 
Sevier brought intelligence of the approach of 
an Indian force, which was subsequently ascer- 
tained to have numbered a thousand warriors, 
led by the brave Shawanese chief Cornstalk. 

General Lewis immediately ordered his bro- 
ther, Colonel Charles Lewis, to advance with a 
strong detachment, and reconnoitre the position 
of the enemy. Within four hundred yards of 
the camp, a fire from ambushed Indians mortally 
wounded Lewis, and disabled Fleming the second 
in command. The suddenness of the attack 
threw their men into disorder ; but, supported by 
reinforcements under Colonel Field, they rallied 
and returned to the attack. From this time the 
contest was maintained on both sides with indo- 
mitable courage and resolution. After lasting 
nearly the whole day with varying success, it 
was finally terminated in favour of the Ame- 
ricans through a secret movement, accomplished 
by the companies of Shelby, Matthews, and 
Stuart, who succeeded in gaining the flank of 
the enemy. Placed between two fires, and 
impressed with the belief that Lewis had been 
joined by reinforcements, the Indians, who had 
hitherto fought with great coolness and delibe- 
ration, began to waver, and finally breaking up 
into confused masses, fled precipitately across 



106 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1776. 

the Ohio. This important victory led to negotia- 
tions for peace ; and the chiefs of the hostile In- 
dians having met Dunmore in council, agreed to 
a treaty, by which they transferred to Great 
Britain all their claims to lands south of the 
Ohio River. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Cherokee council at Sycamore Shoals — Purchase of the Wa- 
tauga territory — Other grants — The Transylvania grant an- 
nulled by Dunmore — Colonial troubles — Instructions to the 
royal governors — Seizure of stores at Concord — Battle of 
Lexington — Difficulties with Dunmore — Patrick Henry 
marches on Williamsburg — Flight of Dunmore — Action of 
the Federal Congress at Philadelphia — Spirited conduct of 
North Carolina — Increased excitement in the province — 
Flight of Governor Martin — The legislature of North Ca- 
rolina advocates a declaration of independence — Annexation 
of the Watauga settlement to North Carolina — Indian hos- 
tilities — Skirmish at Long Island — Defence of Watauga 
Fort — Anecdote of Catherine Sherrill — South Carolina me- 
naced by a British fleet — Provincial expeditions against the 
Cherokees. 

Although the Cherokees were not a party to 
to the cession of lands exacted by Dunmore at 
the treaty of Camp Charlotte, they evinced, 
soon after, a willingness to dispose of a portion 
of their own sylvan possessions. In March, 1775, 
they assembled in council at the Sycamore 
Shoals, on the "Watauga River, and, in considera- 
tion of the sum of ten thousand pounds sterling. 



1775.] TREATY OF WATAUGA. lOT 

transferred to Henderson and his associates all 
their hunting grounds between the Kentucky 
and the Cumberland Rivers. An immense con- 
course of Indians being present on this occasion, 
the people of Watauga seized the opportunity 
thus afforded them to convert their leasehold 
titles into titles in fee simple. By the payment 
of two thousand pounds sterling, they obtained 
a deed for all the lands lying on the waters of 
the Watauga, Holston, and Kanawha, beginning 
on the Holston, six miles above Long Island, 
and terminating at the sources of the Great 
Kanawha. Two other deeds were obtained by 
individuals on the same occasion. The store of 
Parker & Carter had previously been robbed by 
Indians ; and as a compensation for the losses 
thus sustained, and in consideration of an addi- 
tional sum which a third partner, Robert Lucas, 
agreed to pay, they obtained a grant of Carter's 
Valley, "from Cloud's Creek to the Chimney- 
top Mountain of Beech Creek." Jacob Brown 
also obtained grants for lands on both sides of 
Nolachucky River, adjoining the Watauga pur- 
chase. Henderson immediately proceeded to 
organize a form of government for the new pro- 
vince of Transylvania, notwithstanding his title 
was declared invalid by Governor Dunmore, 
within whose jurisdiction the territory in ques- 
tion was at that time supposed to lie. Four 
days subsequent to the treaty of Watauga, and 



108 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1775. 

before its stipulations were complied with, Dun- 
more issued a proclamation, warning all persons 
against Henderson and his associates ; and, sub- 
sequently, the legislature of Virginia declared 
the purchase null and void. But, as a compen- 
sation for the services rendered by the Transyl- 
vania association in opening the wilderness, they 
were granted a tract of land twelve miles square 
on the Ohio,' below the mouth of Green River. 

But at this period the prerogatives of the 
crown were in far more danger within the body 
of the provinces than in the valley of the Ohio. 
The resolution of the English ministry to tax 
the American colonies had been met by a spirit 
of resistance which was rapidly approaching a 
crisis. Non-importation agreements had failed 
to procure redress of grievances. Petitions from 
the Provincial Congress had been received with 
contempt. The indignant spirit of the confede- 
rated colonies now becoming fully aroused, 
volunteer corps were organized, and arms and 
ammunition industriously collected in anticipa- 
tion of the coming struggle. A considerable 
force of British troops had already landed at 
Boston; and early in the spring of 1775, the 
royal governors received instructions to seize 
upon all military stores which might be found in 
possession of the patriots. In obedience to this 
order, Governor Gage, of Massachusetts, des- 
patched a party of regulars to take possession 



1775.] WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 109 

of some cannon and other materiel of war which 
were known to be secreted at Concord. The 
tidings immediately spread; the minute-men 
collecting in great numbers embarrassed the re- 
treating regulars, and the battle at Lexington 
was the commencement of the War of Indepen- 
dence. This event took place on the 19th of 
April. Three days afterward, Governor Dun- 
more ordered the gunpowder in the magazine at 
"Williamsburg to be secretly conveyed on board 
an armed vessel at anchor off Yorktown. So 
soon as the abstraction of the powder was made 
known to the volunteers of the vicinity, they 
armed themselves, and proceeding in a body ta 
the governor, demanded its restitution. While 
the dispute was still pending, tidings arrived of 
the battle of Lexington. Fifteen hundred 
men from the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies 
presently collected at Fredericksburg, in readi- 
ness for any emergency. In the county of Han- 
over, Patrick Henry placed himself at the head 
of his company of volunteers, and marched at 
once upon Williamsburg. By constant acces- 
sions of armed militia, the force under his com- 
mand was speedily increased to five hundred 
men. Sixteen miles from the city, Henry was 
met by a deputation who had prevailed upon 
Corbin, the king's receiver, to indemnify the 
province for the loss of the powder. Having 
thus succeeded in his purpose, Henry returned 

10 



110 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1775. 

to Hanover, and on tlie 4th of May disbanded 
his company. A few weeks later, Dunmore fled 
from Williamsburg, and took refuge on board 
the Fowey man-of-war. The royal government 
of Virginia had ceased to exist. 

Long before this, however, in all the Anglo- 
American provinces, committees of safety had 
been organized, local conventions held, and a 
general Congress, composed of deputies from all 
the colonies, had been in session at Philadelphia. 
The new Congress, which met on the 10th of 
May, promptly sustained the previous action of 
Massachusetts, by providing for the organization 
of an army, and the defence of the United Co- 
lonies. 

On the 17th of June, only two days after the 
unanimous election of George Washington as 
commander-in-chief of the American forces, was 
fought the battle of Bunker Hill. 

But though Congress recognised the existence 
of war, the provinces generally were not yet 
prepared for a declaration of independence. 
North Carolina, alone, by her Mecklenburg ma- 
nifesto, evinced a readiness to throw off all alle- 
giance to Great Britain. Already the freemen 
of that province had twice elected delegates to 
a local convention in opposition to the protests 
of Governor Martin. By a happy unanimity on 
the part of the electors, those whom they had 
chosen as members of the convention, were also 



1776.] REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS. Ill 

elected members of the regular provincial legis- 
lature, met at the same time and place, and 
vesting the offices of president of the assembly 
and moderator of the convention in the same 
person, combined the functions of legislators 
recognised by the crown, with the duties of dele- 
gates expressly chosen to uphold the cause of 
the people. 

The Watauga purchase had been declared ille- 
gal by Governor Martin, but the inhabitants 
paid no heed to his proclamation. His more 
strenuous efforts to prevent all action, on the 
part of the provincial convention, was equally 
unsuccessful. After the battle of Lexington, 
and the passage of the Mecklenburg resolutions, 
the popular effervescence increased to such a 
degree that Martin began to tremble for his 
■personal safety. The valour displayed by the 
continentals at the battle of Bunker Hill, in- 
creased the influence of the patriotic party in 
North Carolina, and rendered the position of 
the royal governor still more precarious. Taking 
council of his fears, he followed the example of 
Dunmore, and sought the protection of an Eng- 
lish armed vessel, at that time anchored in the 
Cape Fear River. On the 20th of August, the 
provincial legislature met at Halifax, and adopt- 
ed an independent form of government. At 
the coming session, which took place on the 4th 
of April, 1776, this patriotic body anticipated 



112 HISTORY OE TENNESSEE. [1776. 

the action of the Federal Congress by instruct- 
ing its delegates to concur with the other colo- 
nial delegates in a formal declaration of inde- 
pendence. Laws were also passed constraining 
loyalists to take an oath of allegiance to the 
new government, providing for an issue of trea- 
sury bills, and for the military organization of 
the state. 

Up to this period the inhabitants of the Wa- 
tauga settlement, had been living peacefully under 
the regulations they had voluntarily imposed 
upon themselves. But though they had disre- 
garded the proclamation of Governor Martin, 
making void the purchase of their lands, they 
were not insensible of the difficulties to which 
they were exposed by their isolated condition, 
nor regardless of the odium which attached to 
them, when, as population increased, large num- 
bers of lawless men took refuge among them, to 
evade the demands of their creditors, or to 
shelter themselves from criminal prosecutions. 
Finding their simple code of laws too weak to 
control these restless desperados, and earnestly 
desirous of aiding the provinces in the war of 
independence, they solicited permission to place 
themselves under the jurisdiction of North Caro- 
lina, to which state they petitioned to be annex- 
ed under the title of ^^ Washington District." 
Their prayer was granted, and John Carter, 
John Haile, and John Sevier were elected dele- 



1776.] MEASURES or DEFENCE. 113 

gates to the provincial legislature which met at 
Halifax on the 12th of November, 1776. 

The annexation of the community on the 
Watauga to the province of North Carolina was 
productive of the most beneficial results. Out- 
casts from society were now rendered amenable 
to the laws. Committees of safety were organ- 
ized, and Tory refugees and suspected loyalists 
compelled to swear fealty to the American cause. 
Companies of volunteers were organized, and 
every preparation was made for taking part in 
the revolutionary struggle, as well as to pro- 
tect the inhabitants from the effects of Indian 
hostilities. 

The measures for local defence were dictated 
by a wise forecast. It was well known that 
Cameron, the Indian agent, had been tampering 
with the Cherokees ; some disturbances had 
already taken place, and information, derived 
from authentic sources, put them in possession 
of the fact that Henry Stuart, the deputy In- 
dian agent under Cameron, was instigating 
the Tories to assemble in arms in the Cherokee 
nation ; and that the latter tribe, in conjunction 
with the Shawanes, Mingoes, and Delawares, 
were preparing for a general attack upon the 
inhabitants of the frontiers. 

These alarming tidings roused even those who 
had hitherto been lukewarm to attach themselves to 
the common cause. Everywhere the border popu- 

10* 



114 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1776. 

lation deserting their homestead, came flocking 
into the forts, and picketed stations, bringing 
with them their wives and children, and their 
portable eifects. Rumours of the intended in- 
vasion hourly increased, and the people actively 
exerted themselves to meet it. The forts were 
strengthened, arms and ammunition collected, 
and messengers despatched to various quarters 
for such assistance as could be afforded. Five 
companies of Virginians receiving intelligence 
that seven hundred Cherokee warriors were 
marching, in two divisions, upon the Holston 
and the Watauga, hastened to Eaton's station 
on the south fork of the Holston, for the purpose 
of protecting that advanced post. They had 
scarcely reached it, before their reconnoi*ering 
parties reported the approach of the enemy. 
Reinforcements arriving soon after, it was con- 
cluded to leave a small garrison in charge of the 
fort, while the remainder of the armed detach- 
ments, to the number of one hundred and seventy 
men, should march out in search of the enemy. 
In the vicinity of the Long Island the scouts 
encountered and defeated a small party of war- 
riors ; but as pursuit was difficult, by reason of 
the rugged character of the ground, it was 
deemed most prudent to return to the fort. 
During this retrograde movement, their rear was 
fired on by the enemy in numbers equal to their 
own. But the men, though taken by surprise, 



1776.] INDIAN INVASION. 115 

sustained the shock with great courage, baffled 
the attempt of the Indians to outflank them, and 
finally, after a severe contest, which was for the 
most part hand to hand, succeeded in routing 
them with considerable slaughter. Another war 
party of the Cherokees, marching by the Nola- 
chucky trace, drove in the garrison at G illespie's 
station, and made a sudden assault upon the fort 
of Watauga. Of this station James Robertson 
was commandant. His effective force did not 
exceed forty men, but it proved sufficient to beat 
back the enemy, who, after suffering a signal 
repulse, and losing a considerable number of 
warriors, contented themselves with investing 
the fort until the siege was raised by a reinforce- 
ment of cavalry under the gallant Colonel Shelby. 
It was while assisting in the defence of Wa- 
tauga Fort, as second in command to Robertson, 
that an incident occurred which gave to Lieu- 
tenant John Sevier a romantic introduction to 
his future wife. In the midst of the alarm pro- 
duced by the approach of the Cherokees, Sevier 
"discovered a young lady, of tall and erect 
stature, coming with the fleetness of the roe 
toward the fort, closely pursued by Indians, and 
her approach to the gate cut off by the enemy, 
who doubtless were confident of a captive, or a 
victim; but turning suddenly, she eluded her 
pursuers, and leaping 'the palisades at an unex- 
pected point, fell into the arms of Sevier. Ca- 



116 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1779. 

therine Sherrill, the dashing heroine of this 
remarkable feat, whose beauty, activity, and 
natural gracefulness were for many years the 
theme of border praise, became, in 1779, the 
happy consort of " the portly young stranger 
from Williamsburg," and, through a long and 
eventful life, shared with him his varying for- 
tunes, proving herself under all circumstances 
his wisest counsellor and dearest friend. 

Notwithstanding the defeat at Long Island, 
and the repulse before Fort Watauga, other de- 
tached parties of warriors were successful in 
penetrating the frontiers of Virginia, and carry- 
ing desolation and dismay to many an isolated 
household. 

The appearance oiF Charleston of the British 
squadron under Sir Peter Parker, diverted for a 
season the arms of the Cherokees from the Wa- 
tauga settlement, and precipitated them, as if by 
previous concert, upon the frontiers of South 
Carolina. Moultrie's admirable defence of Sul- 
livan's Island frustrated the designs of the 
British commander ; and with the repulse of the 
fleet, the sanguinary activity of the savage war- 
riors slackened also. 

Now it was that the four southern provinces, 
being freed from the alarm of immediate inva- 
sion by sea, determined to break the power of 
the Cherokee nation, by sending separate expe- 
ditions to make a simultaneous attack upon the 



1779.] DEFEAT OF THE CHEROKEES. 117 

lower, middle, and upper towns. Those who 
resided on the Tugaloo, were defeated by the 
Georgian troops. The militia of South Carolina, 
under General Williamson, after dispersing a 
mixed force of Indians and Tories at Oconoree, 
laid all the towns of the middle Cherokees in 
ruins, destroyed their growing crops, together 
with the contents of their granaries, and, subse- 
quently, defeated a second body of Cherokee 
warriors with considerable loss. 

While Williamson was devastating one portion 
of the middle settlement. General Rutherford, 
marching from North Carolina with an army 
increased by accessions to two thousand men, 
crossed the Blue ridge at the Swannange Gap, 
and falling upon the towns on the Tennessee 
and Hiwassee Rivers, destroyed them without 
opposition. 

Virginia undertook to chastise the mountain 
Cherokees, those brave and haughty warriors 
inhabiting the overhill towns, who, by their re- 
moteness and the difficulties of the route, had 
escaped unharmed the earlier expeditions of 
Grant and Montgomery. Authority having been 
given to Colonel William Christian to organize 
an army at the expense of the state, he speedily 
found himself at the head of a large number of 
frontier men, who had moved by companies and 
detachments to the rendezvous on the Great 
Island of Holston. Here also Christian was 



118 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1779. 

joined by a reinforcement of several hundred 
men from North Carolina. Volunteers from the 
Watauga joined him a few days later; and with 
this army, amounting in the aggregate to eighteen 
hundred men, he took up the line of march for 
the overhill towns, two hundred miles distant. 
At the crossing-place of the French Broad, the 
Indians were reported to have stationed them- 
selves, to the number of three thousand warriors, 
with the avowed resolution of disputing the pas- 
sage. Deceiving the Indiaijs by a stratagem, 
Christian threw a strong detachment over the 
river under cover of the night ; and having thus 
secured a landing-place on the opposite shore, 
crossed securely over the next morning with his 
main body. One thousand Cherokee warriors, 
who had previously assembled at the Big Island 
of French Broad, seized with a panic at the 
resolute advance of Christian, abandoned all 
thought of resistance, and hastened back to their 
towns to provide places of security for their 
families in the recesses of the mountains. Along 
the route, thus unexpectedly opened to him. 
Christian moved with as much rapidity as con- 
sisted with prudence, until he reached the Ten- 
nessee River, where he expected the inhabitants 
of the towns on the opposite bank would make 
an obstinate stand. To his great surprise he 
found those habitations also deserted. The Great 
Island town, in the midst of its fertile meadows, 



1779.] SUCCESS OF CHRISTIAN. 119 

was soon in possession of the invaders ; and here 
it was, surrounded by abundance of provisions, 
that Christian established his head-quarters. 
The detachments sent out from this point laid 
waste all the villages inhabited by the hostile 
warriors, who, under old Abram of Chilhowee, 
the Raven, and the Dragging-Canoe, had 
threatened previously the Holston and Watauga 
settlements, and wreaked their vengeance on the 
borders of Virginia. The towns inhabited by 
such Cherokees as had remained neutral were 
wisely spared. After having thus effectually 
humbled the pride of the mountain warriors. 
Christian offered to entertain negotiations for a 
peace. The proposal was eagerly accepted, and 
an agreement was soon after drawn up, by which 
the Cherokees bound themselves to send dele- 
gates from all the tribes to meet in council at 
Long Island the following May, for the purpose 
of formally ratifying a treaty. Having thus 
satisfactorily accomplished the object of the ex- 
pedition, Christian returned to Long Island, 
where he disbanded a portion of his army, re- 
taining only a sufficient number through the 
winter to construct and garrison Fort Patrick 
Henry. Thus closed the most important expedi- 
tion that had ever penetrated into the Cherokee 
country of East Tennessee. The success which 
had attended it increased largely the flood of 
emigration to the waters of the Holston, and the 



120 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1776. 

Watauga, and tliough a few of the hostile chiefs 
declared their determination to continue the war, 
their threats produced no further effects than to 
render the settlers more watchful and prepared. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Washington county established — Liberality of the North Caro- 
lina legislature — Special enactment in favour of the Watauga 
settlers — Increase of emigration — Military service — Assist- 
ance sent to Kentucky — Relief of Logan's Fort — Militia 
disbanded in Tennessee — Lawlessness of the Tories and Re- 
fugees — Committee of safety organized — Summary punish- 

* ment of obnoxious persons — Hostility of the Chickamaugas 
— The Nick-a-jack towns — Description of the Nick-a-jack cave 
— Expedition against the Chickamaugas — Destruction of 
their towns — Jonesborough founded — Sullivan county esta- 
blished — Exploration of the Lower Cumberland — Robertson's 
settlement on the Bluff at Nashville — Donaldson's remarkable 
voyage — Joins Robertson at the Bluff. 

In November, 1776, the legislature of North 
Carolina changed the name of Washington dis- 
trict into that of Washington county, and as- 
signed for its bounds the limits of the present 
State of Tennessee. At the same session a law 
was passed, establishing a land office in the new 
county, the price of lands being fixed at forty 
shillings the hundred acres. Each head of a 
family was allowed to take up six hundred and 



1776.] ASSISTANCE TO KENTUCKY. 121 

forty acres for himself, one hundred acres for 
his wife, and the same quantity for each of his 
children. By a special enactment in favour of 
the Watauga settlers, payment for the lands 
they occupied was not to be exacted until after 
the 1st of January, 1779. Great numbers of 
hardy and energetic men hastened with their 
families to take advantage of this liberality. 
Many of whom, by enrolling themselves as mi- 
litia in the service of the State, were enabled 
during the year to pay for the lands they had 
taken up, while, at the same time, they afforded 
protection to the industrial population from 
roving bands of hostile Cherokees. But the in- 
habitants of Tennessee did not confine themselves 
merely to the defence of their own territory. 
They no sooner learned that Kentucky was suf- 
fering an Indian invasion, and that Boonesbo- 
rough, Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station were 
invested by large parties of warriors, than 
forty-five riflemen from the Holston hastened to 
reinforce the beleaguered garrisons. These 
proving insufiScient, one hundred additional rifle- 
men, bearing with them supplies of provisions, 
promptly responded to the personal appeal of 
Captain Logan, and after a march of two hun- 
dred miles through the wilderness, entered the 
fort, the siege of which the enemy hastily aban- 
doned at their approach. 

But while the pioneers of Tennessee were ge- 
11 



122 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1778. 

nerously aiding to promote the security of the 
scattered population of Kentucky, they grew 
careless with regard to their own. Believing 
that the storm of war had rolled to the north- 
ward, and that they were now sufficiently strong 
to dispense with the services of the militia, the 
greater part of the latter were disbanded in 
1778. This measure was soon found to have 
been an impolitic one ; for, although there was 
but little danger to be apprehended from the In- 
dians, bands of Tories and desperate men had 
settled on the frontiers, whose numbers enabled 
them to defy the laws and to pursue their career 
of rapine and bloodshed with insolent impunity. 
The power of the judiciary being found inade- 
quate to curb this ruffianly domination, the older 
settlers determined to take the affair into their 
own hands. A committee of safety was appointed, 
with unlimited authority to execute summary 
justice upon all offenders. Under the direction 
of this committee, sixty mounted riflemen, divided 
into two companies, were speedily organized for 
the purpose of patrolling the whole of the country. 
These rangers were empowered to " capture and 
punish with death all suspected persons who re- 
fused submission, or failed to give good security 
for their appearance before the committee. 
Slighter offences were atoned for by the inflic- 
tion of corporeal punishment ; to which was su- 
peradded, in cases where the off'ender was able 



1778.] COMMITTEE OF SAFETY. 123 

to pay it, a heavy fine in money. Leaders in 
crime expiated their guilt by their lives. Several 
of these were shot ; some of them at their execu- 
tion disclosed the names and hiding-places of 
their accomplices. These were in their turn 
pursued, arrested, and punished; and the country 
"was, in less than two months, restored to a con- 
dition of safety." Among the members of Cap- 
tain Bean's company were Lane, Sevier, and 
Robertson, men foremost in settling the wilds of 
Tennessee, and always ready, at the hazard of 
their own lives, to promote the welfare of its in- 
dustrious population. This exercise of despotic 
power can only be justified by the plea of neces- 
sity. Self-protection is the first law of man's 
nature. When those regulations in which he 
has acquiesced fail to provide for the security of 
his person and property, he has a right to re- 
sume the functions he had transferred into the 
hands of others, and to adopt such other measures 
as may be required for his own security and the 
general welfare of the community in which he 
resides. In the brief period during which the 
administration of justice was entrusted by the 
popular voice to the committee of safety, some 
obnoxious persons may possibly have been hardly 
dealt with ; but if such cases did occur they were 
few in number, while the evil thus inflicted was 
greatly overbalanced by the benefit which ac- 
crued to the whole settlement from the prompt 



124 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1778. 

and energetic action of those who had been active 
in the restoration of law and order. 

It will be remembered that a few of the Chero- 
kees refused to treat with Colonel Christian or 
to send delegates to the council at Long Island. 
They were principally Chickamaugas, a tribe 
which originally "occupied the borders of Chick- 
amauga creek, but afterward extended their vil- 
lages fifty miles below, on both sides of the 
Tennessee." Establishing themselves in what 
were subsequently known as the Nick-a-jack 
towns, they carried on so successful a predatory 
warfare upon parties of emigrants descending 
the dangerous rapids of the Tennessee River, 
that their numbers were rapidly increased by 
roving bands of Indians from other tribes, and 
by the addition of lawless white men, who had 
fled from the provinces to evade the penalty of 
their manifold crimes. 

This community of desperadoes were able to 
send out, on their various incursions against the 
frontier settlements, one thousand armed men, 
whose favourite place of resort, either in times of 
danger, for the storing of their plunder, or for 
more sanguinary purposes, was the Nick-a-jack 
Cave, an immense subterranean formation which, 
piercing the end of the Cumberland Mountain, 
has its principal entrance upon the Tennessee 
River. " At its mouth it is about thirty yards 
wide, arched overhead with pure granite, this 



.1779.] NICK-A-JACK CAVE. 125 

being in the centre about fifteen feet high. A 
beautiful little river, clear as crystal, issues from 
its mouth. The distance the cave extends into 
the mountains has not been ascertained. It has 
been explored only four or five miles. At the 
mouth the river is wide and shallow, but nar- 
rower than the cave. As you proceed from thence 
up the stream, the cave becomes gradually nar- 
rower, until it is contracted to the exact width 
of the river. It is beyond this point explored 
only by water in a small canoe." 

The excesses of these hostile Indians and their 
confederates keeping the border population of 
Virginia and North Carolina in a condition of 
continual uneasiness, the forces of the two pro- 
-^vinces were combined for an effective descent 
upon the Chickamaugas and the destruction of 
their towns. 

The command of this expedition, which com- 
prised one thousand volunteers and a regiment 
of twelvemonths' men, was given to Colonel Evan 
Shelby. From the rendezvous at the mouth of 
Big Creek in Hawkins county, the troops em- 
barked in piraguas and canoes, on the 10th of 
April, 1779, and descending the Holston, fell 
suddenly upon the enemy, who, taken completely 
by surprise, offered no resistance, but instantly 
took refuge in their mountain fastnesses. After 
killing, during the pursuit, some forty warriors, 

the troops returned and burned the towns, de- 
11* 



126 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1779. 

stroyed the granaries and stores of provisions, 
and made prizes of large herds of cattle, which, 
by an overland march, they brought in safety to 
the settlement. This expedition humbled the 
spirit of the Chickamaugas and their allies for a 
season, and effectually prevented them from 
forming a coalition with the north-western tribes 
which Hamilton, the British commandant at De- 
troit, had strenuously exerted himself to pro- 
mote. For the important service rendered by 
the Shelbys on this occasion. Colonel Evan 
Shelby was raised to the command of the Vir- 
ginia militia, with the rank of general, while in 
1779 his son Isaac was appointed, by Governor 
Caswell of North Carolina, colonel-commandant 
of Washington county. The acts of the legisla- 
ture during this year embraced the appointment 
of commissioners to run the boundary between 
Virginia and North Carolina, the erection of the 
new town of Jonesborough into the seat of jus- 
tice for Washington county, and the establish'- 
ment of a new county out of part of Washington, 
which was named Sullivan, in honour of the re- 
volutionary general of that name. 

In the mean time parties of enterprising men 
were exploring the Lower Cumberland ; but with 
the exception of a few families who resided in a 
picketed station at Bledsoe's Lick on the Sul- 
phur fork of the Red River, and a French 
trading post lately established on the Bluff at 



1775.] FIRST SETTLERS AT NASHVILLE. 127 

Nashville, no settlers had as yet ventured to 
occupy any portion of middle Tennessee. At 
length, in the spring of 1775, a small party 
under James Robertson left Watauga for the 
purpose of testing the fertility of the lands oh 
the Cumberland River, preparatory to the re- 
moval of their families. Their report proving 
favourable, other emigrants, to the number of 
three hundred, accompanied them in the fall of 
the same year to the French lick, the principal 
part of whom crossed over to the south bank of 
the Cumberland and commenced the erection of 
blockhouses on the Bluff, now occupied by the 
city of Nashville. The situation of these ad- 
venturers, in the midst of a wilderness, surround- 
ed by swarthy foes, and at a distance of three 
hundred miles from their friends upon the Hol- 
ston, called for constant vigilance and an ever 
ready system of defence. To add to the dis- 
comforts of their condition, the first winter they 
passed upon the Cumberland was one of extra- 
ordinary severity. Their cattle died ; their pro- 
visions became exhausted ; game was scarce, and 
while the river remained frozen, it was impos- 
sible to obtain supplies from the older settle- 
ments. Toward the close of April the colony 
at the Bluffs was largely increased by the arrival 
of a flotilla of emigrants under Colonel Donaldson. 
These intrepid voyagers descended the Holston 
from Fort Patrick Henry, and entering the Ten- 



128 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1775. 

nessee River, committed themselves to its cur- 
rent. The danger to their frail and heavily 
laden barks from the rapids and whirlpools which 
impede the navigation of this river, was nothing 
in comparison to the perils by which they were 
beset from sanguinary bands of the Chicka- 
maugas, who, travelling by both banks of the 
river, fired into the boats whenever an oppor- 
tunity offered, and were successful in killing one 
company of thirty persons, besides wounding a 
number of others. The voyage was, however, 
resolutely continued to the Ohio, where most of 
the boats took a southerly direction. Donaldson's 
company, however, ascended the river, and en- 
tering the mouth of the Cumberland reached 
Robertson's settlement at the French lick on 
the 24th of April, 1780, after a weary and most 
eventful voyage of four months. 



1776.] WAR OP INDEPENDENCE. 129 



CHAPTER X. 

War of independence — Evacuation of Boston — Declaration of 
independence — Battle of Long Island — Of White Plains — 
Washington retreats across the Jerseys — Battle of Trenton 
— Battle of Princeton — Howe advances on Philadelphia — 
Battle of Brandywine — Of Germantown — Burgoyne's inva- 
sion — His defeat at Saratoga — Conquest of Georgia — Subju- 
gation of South Carolina — Defeat of Gates at Camden — 
Activity of the mountaineers — Shelby and Sevier join 
McDowell — Capture of a Tory garrison on Pacolet River — 
Advance of the British and Tories under Ferguson — Battle 
of Musgrove Mill — Rapid retreat of the mountaineers. 

For the most perfect understanding of the im- 
portant services which were rendered by the 
riflemen of Tennessee, during the "War of Inde- 
pendence, it will be necessary to trace briefly 
the progress of events in the united colonies 
from the outbreak of the war to the defeat of 
Gates in South Carolina. In March, 1776, Ge- 
neral Washington succeeded in forcing Lord 
Howe to evacuate Boston ; and during the fol- 
lowing June, it will be remembered that the 
British fleet signally failed in an attack upon 
Charleston, through the admirable defence of 
Moultrie. On the 4th of July, Congress adopted 
the Declaration of Independence. At this pe- 
riod, the continental army under Washington 
was encamped in and around New York, which 



130 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1777. 

was closely invested by the military and naval 
forces of Great Britain. The defeat of the 
American troops on Long Island toward the close 
of August, compelled Washington to evacuate 
New York and retreat to White Plains, where, 
on the 28th of September, a battle was fought, 
which induced Washington to break up his camp 
at White Plains, and cross the Hudson into 
New Jersey. Fort Washington being captured 
soon after by the British, and Fort Lee abandoned 
by the Americans, the advance of the enemy com- 
pelled Washington, who, with his army diminished 
to three thousand men had moved southward to 
Newark, to retreat through the Jerseys. Li the 
midst of the almost universal gloom and despond- 
ency he passed over into Pennsylvania, and went 
into winter-quarters on the right bank of the 
Delaware. Reinforced by some mihtia, and the 
regulars under Lee, Washington recrossed the 
Delaware on the night of the 25th of December, 
captured at Trenton a thousand Hessians under 
Rahl, and after eluding the superior forces of 
the enemy, which were soon in motion, fell sud- 
denly upon the British rear-guard at Princeton, 
routed two regiments, captured nearly the whole 
of a third, and obliged Cornwallis to fall back 
upon New Brunswick. Through the remainder 
of the winter the American army was encamped 
at Morristown. 

During the summer of 1777, General Howe, 



1779.] WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 131; 



sailing up the Chesapeake with sixteen thousand 
men, marched from the head of Elk toward Phi- 
ladelphia, the capture of which had been made 
the principal object of the campaign. Washing- 
ton hastened to oppose him ; but losing the bat- 
tle of Brandywine on the 11th of September, 
was obliged to retire before the victorious co- 
lumns of Howe, which took possession of Phila- 
delphia without any further molestation. On 
the 11th of September, Washington made a 
serious attack upon the British advanced post at 
Germantown, in which the Americans again suf- 
fered a severe repulse. In the mean time, how- 
ever. General Burgoyne, descending from Canada 
upon New York, had gradually involved his army 
in a network of difficulties from which there was 
no escape. The defeat of Baum at Bennington 
by the militia of Vermont under Stark, was fol- 
lowed by the battles at Saratoga, and the sur- 
render to General Gates of the entire army of 
Burgoyne. The following year France formed 
an alliance offensive and defensive with the 
united colonies of North America, and General 
Howe thought it prudent to evacuate Philadel- 
phia and retreat to New York. The British 
commander now turned his attention to the 
southern provinces, and succeeded with but little 
difficulty in making a complete conquest of 
Georgia. In 1779, General Lincoln, assisted by 
a French squadron under Count D'Estaing, made 



1^^ HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1780. 

a bold but ineffectual attempt to recapture Sa- 
vannah, and drive the British from the province. 
At the north, the capture of Stony Point by 
Wayne was hailed as a brilliant and daring 
achievement, though productive of no more than 
a temporary triumph, as it soon after fell again 
into the hands of the enemy. 

In 1780, Sir Henry Clinton, who had suc- 
ceeded Howe as commander-in-chief, set sail from 
New York, and investing Charleston, which was 
defended by the southern army under General 
Lincoln, succeeded in forcing the latter to ca- 
pitulate. The garrison numbering five thousand 
men became prisoners of war. 

Leaving Cornwallis to complete the reduction 
of the province, Clinton returned to New York. 
Undismayed by the loss of Charleston, and the 
capture of the southern army, a new force was 
speedily organized under the direction of Con- 
gress, the command of which was given to Ge- 
neral Gates. Less fortunate than when opposed 
to Burgoyne, Gates suffered a severe defeat at 
Camden on the 16th of August, by which the 
whole of his army was broken up and dispersed. 

So complete at this period did the subjugation 
of South Carolina and Georgia appear to be, and 
so little resistance did Cornwallis anticipate in 
North Carolina, that he projected a junction, at 
an early day, with the British forces already 
ravaging Virginia under Phillips and Arnold, 



1780.] THE MOUNTAINEERS. 13S 

while some of the more ardent loyalists calculated 
upon the reduction of all the States south of the 
Hudson before the close of the campaign. 

But the activity of the mountaineers of Vir- 
ginia and North Carolina was destined to turn 
the scale of victory, and to afford time for a 
general arming of the Whigs. On the ap- 
proach of the British to Charleston, General 
Rutherford of North Carolina summoned the 
militia of the state to arm in defence of the 
common cause. The requisition was promptly 
met by John Sevier, as lieutenant-colonel of 
Washington county, and by Isaac Shelby in the 
adjoining county of Sullivan. In the absence 
of Rutherford, who had hastened with the main 
body of the militia to join the forces at this time 
collecting under Gates, the command in North 
Carolina devolved upon Colonel McDowell, who 
directed Sevier and Shelby to meet him with all 
the mounted riflemen they could collect at his 
camp 'n South Carolina, near the Cherokee ford 
of Broad River. These orders were promptly 
responded to. Five hundred mounted men from 
the Holston and the Watauga, led by Sevier and 
Shelby, crossed the Alleghanies, and presently 
made their appearance in the camp of McDowell. 
To this rendezvous also repaired Colonel Clark, 
a daring refugee officer from Georgia. 

At this period the British troops occupied all 
the important posts in Georgia and South Caro- 



134 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780. 

lina. The steady and uninterrupted advance of 
Cornwallis inspirited the Tories on the borders 
of North and South Carolina to place themselves 
under the command of Colonel Patrick Moore of 
Tryon county, who, with a detachment of ninety- 
three men, proceeded to Pacolet River, and took 
possession of a strong fort which had been built 
there during the Cherokee war. 

As this post was but little more than twenty 
miles distant from the camp of McDowell, the 
latter despatched Shelby, Sevier, and Clarke, 
with six hundred men, to attempt its surprise. 
The enterprise was completely successful. Sum- 
moned by Shelby to surrender, -Moore at first 
resolutely refused ; but when he saw the moun- 
taineers preparing to carry the post by storm, he 
consented to capitulate "on condition that the 
garrison be paroled not to serve again during 
the war." By this bloodless exploit the victors 
obtained two hundred and fifty stand of arms, 
and a small but welcome supply of ammunition. 

The eflfect of this bold and decisive movement 
not only led the Tory inhabitants of the Caro- 
linas to repress their exultation, but to reflect 
more seriously upon the risks to which they ex- 
posed themselves by joining the British standard. 
The forces under General Gates were also at 
this period rapidly increasing in numbers. While 
Cornwallis was marching to Camden to reinforce 
Rawdon against the approach of the American 



1780.] MOVEMENTS OF ROYALISTS. 135 

.army, he directed Colonel Ferguson, a brave, 
popular, and energetic officer, to proceed with a 
detachment of regulars to Ninety-Six, and sum- 
mon to his assistance the loyalists of the adjoin- 
ing provinces. Being presently joined by two 
thousand disaffected Americans, exclusive of a 
small troop of horse, Ferguson made several in- 
effectual attempts to surprise McDowell in his 
camp. Shifting his rendezvous frequently, and 
keeping Shelby and Clarke with six hundred 
mounted men on the constant watch for detached 
parties of the enemy, McDowell was not only 
enabled to baffle the designs of Ferguson, but 
frequently to cut off his foragers. A skirmish 
of this kind occurred on the 1st of August, when 
Ferguson's advance, seven hundred strong, en- 
countered the mounted men under Shelby and 
Clarke, who, though forced from the field of 
battle by the approach of the main body under 
Ferguson, succeeded in carrying off with them 
as prisoners, two officers, and fifty rank and file. 
While lying at Smith's ford of the Broad 
River, McDowell learned that a body of Tories 
were collected at Musgrove's Mill, on the south 
side of the Enor^e, and distant from his camp 
about forty miles. Although Ferguson with his 
whole force lay midway between, Shelby, Clarke, 
and Williamson of South Carolina, whose re- 
spective commands amounted in the aggregate 
to six hundred mounted men, determined by a 



136 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780. 

rapid niglit march to evade the vigilance of Fer- 
guson's patrols, and fall suddenly upon the Tory 
camp beyond. Taking a circuitous route through 
the forest, during the night of the 18th of Au- 
gust, they reached the vicinity of the enemy 
before dawn the following morning, drove in the 
outposts, and were preparing for a general as- 
sault when they were informed by a countryman 
that the Tories had been reinforced the previous 
evening by six hundred regulars commanded by 
Colonel Innes. To retreat with horses already 
fatigued from hard riding would have laid the 
mountaineers open to a successful attack from a 
vigorous and superior foe, while to advance was 
equally dangerous. In this emergency it was 
decided to throw up a rude breastwork of logs 
and brush on the edge of a thick wood, facing a 
narrow lane, and in this position await the ap- 
proach of Innes. Captain Inman was thrown 
forward with twenty-five men to skirmish with 
the enemy at the crossing at the Enoree. In 
obedience to previous orders, he kept up, for a 
short time, a sharp fire, and then retreated. 
Supposing that the whole force of the Americans 
had been routed, the British and Tories followed 
in pursuit, until they came within range of the 
American rifles, when a deadly and destructive 
fire opened upon them, which was kept up for 
more than an hour. The dragoons and mounted 
militia, after being repulsed in an attempt to 



1780.] BATTLE OF MUSGROVE'S MILL. 137 

force the American lines, fell back in disorder 
upon the regulars, who, being confined within 
the limits of the narrow lane where they had not 
room enough to form, were borne back in confu- 
sion. While they were thus htiddled together, 
the rifles of the mountaineers proved terribly 
destructive. Sixty-three of the enemy, including 
all the officers with the exception of a single sub- 
altern, were either killed or wounded. Hawzey 
the Tory leader was among the former. Innes 
himself being also disabled, his troops became 
disheartened, and at length giving way on all 
sides, sought safety in flight. The gallant Inman 
pursued them to the crossing of the Enor^e, 
where he fell mortally wounded in a hand-to- 
hand conflict. The loss of the British, in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners, was two hundred and 
twenty-three. The American loss was four killed 
and nine wounded. Flushed with their recent 
success, Shelby and his associate partisans re- 
solved to proceed at once against the British 
post at Ninety-Six ; but in the midst of their pre- 
parations a messenger, despatched by McDowell, 
placed in the hands of Shelby a letter from Go- 
vernor Caswell, containing a brief account of the 
defeat of Gates at Camden, and advising the 
confederated officers to disband their respective 
corps until a better opportunity should ofier for 
successful resistance. An immediate retreat 
across the mountains now became necessary. 



138 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780. 

Mounting his prisoners behind his men, one to 
every three, and shifting them alternately, Shelby 
set out on his return, marching all night, and 
all the next day, without waiting for refresh- 
ments. This SEtved the troops and secured the 
prisoners, for the next day Ferguson sent out a 
strong detachment in pursuit ; but baffled by the 
superior activity of the mountaineers, Dupoister, 
the officer in command, after a chase which was 
continued until the evening of the second day, 
returned to the British camp. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Mountaineers disbanded — Advance of Ferguson — His message 
to Shelby — The mountaineers called to arms — Assemble at 
Watauga — Advance against Ferguson — The latter retires 
from Gilbert town — American reinforcement — Conference of 
the partisan leaders at the Covs^pens — Pursuit of Ferguson — 
Campbell selected to command the mountaineers — Approach 
to King's Mountain — Order of battle — Sevier comes under 
fire of the enemy — The attack commenced — Courageous 
conduct of Ferguson — Effect of his bayonet charges — Reso- 
lute perseverance of the mountaineers — Flag of surrender 
twice torn down by Ferguson — His defiant conduct— His 
death — Surrender of the British and Tories — Tarleton sent 
to relieve Ferguson — His recall — Retreat of Cornwallis — 
His subsequent movements — Battle of GuiJford Court House 
— Capitulation at Yorktown. 

After the brilliant exploit at Musgrove's 
Mill, the mountaineers were disbanded and re- 



1780.] ADVANCE OF FERGUSON. 139 

tired to their respective homes. The prisoners 
captured by Shelby were sent for safe keeping 
into Virginia, in charge of Colonels Clarke and 
Williams. The success of Cornwallis at Camden, 
and the subsequent disaster of Sumpter, had 
so thoroughly paralyzed all effort on the part of 
the Whigs, that, for a short period, the hope of 
recovering Georgia or the Carolinas from British 
domination seemed utterly futile. Gates was 
indeed striving to reorganize the scattered rem- 
nant of his army ; but in this desperate condition 
of affairs *it was with great difficulty that the 
militia could be persuaded to report themselves 
for service. 

At this period the main army under Cornwal- 
lis lay at Charlotte, North Carolina. Ferguson, 
with two thousand regulars and loyalists was at 
Gilbert Town, in Rutherford county. The posi- 
tion of the latter was such as enabled him to 
overawe the surrounding Whigs, while keeping 
a sharp watch upon the movements of the moun- 
taineers. Exasperated by the capture of Pacolet 
fort, and the defeat of Innes at Musgrove's Mill, 
he had drawn his forces nearer to the mountains ; 
and, on the return of the detachment sent out 
to recapture the prisoners taken in the last- 
named battle, he despatched a messenger to 
Washington and Sullivan counties, threatening, 
"that if the officers west of the mountains did 
not cease their oppobition to the British arms, 



140 HISTOKY OF TENNESSEE. [1780. 

he would march his army over, burn and lay 
waste their country, and hang their leaders." 

Shelby received this insolent missive toward 
the close of August, and immediately rode from 
fifty to sixty miles to concert with Sevier a new 
plan of action. After an earnest conference, it 
was resolved to call in the assistance of Colonels 
Campbell and McDowell, and with the forces 
thus hastily raised in North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, to make ^a rapid march across the moun- 
tains and surprise Ferguson in his camp. On 
the 25th of September, one thousand and forty 
men, in obedience to the summons of their re- 
spective commanders, assembled at Watauga. 
The following morning they commenced their 
march. On the 30th of September, after tra- 
versing the difficult defiles of the mountains, 
they were joined by Colonel Cleaveland and 
other refugee officers, with three hundred and 
fifty volunteers from Wilkes and Surry counties. 

Fully advised of the danger by which he was 
threatened, Ferguson broke up his camp at Gil- 
bert Town, and despatched a messenger to Corn- 
wallis, soliciting aid. Calling at the same time 
upon the loyalists for reinforcements, he fell 
back on the 4th of October to the Cowpens. 
The following day he crossed Broad River to 
Tate's Ferry, recrossed the river at that point, 
and encamped about a mile above. On the 6th, 
he marched by way of the Ridge Road to King's 



1780.] MOVEMENT AGAINST FERGUSON. 141 

Creek. Passing the gap, he ascended King's 
Mountain and encamped upon its summit. Using 
an impious expression, he is said to have de- 
clared that here was a place from which he could 
not be driven. After being reinforced by the 
volunteers under Cleaveland, the mountaineers 
moved with great expedition to Gilbert Town, 
from whence Ferguson had already retreated. 
Here a council of officers was held, at which it 
was decided that the mounted men should hasten 
in pursuit, leaving the foot and weaker cavalry 
under the command of Major Hendon to follow 
after. In accordance with this arrangement, 
"between five and six hundred picked men, mount- 
ed on the best horses, left Gilbert Town on the 
morning of the 6th of October. Fortunately for 
this advance party, they were reinforced on the 
way by additional volunteers from North Caro- 
lina, and by some South Carolina troops under 
Colonel Williams. At the Cowpens they halted 
for a short time to refresh ; but learning that a 
large body of Tories was collecting at Major 
Gibbs's, with the intention of forming a junction 
with Ferguson the following day, they broke up 
their meal, and hurried off to bring Ferguson to 
an engagement before his reinforcements should 
arrive. 

Learning that he was encamped near the 
Cherokee ford of the Broad River, thirty miles 
distant from the Cowpens, they pressed forward 



142 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1780. 

all night, in the midst of a heavy rain, and 
crossing Broad River early the next morning 
encountered, soon after, two men fresh from 
Ferguson's camp. The information obtained 
from these men revived the drooping spirits of 
the detachment. Notwithstanding their fatigue 
and exhaustion from muddy roads, hunger, cold, 
and wet, the officers, after holding a brief con- 
sultation on horseback, determined to form their 
men in four columns, and proceed at once to the 
attack. The right wing, commanded by Colonels 
Winston and Sevier, was composed of the troops 
brought into the field by those officers and of the 
battalion of McDowell. Colonels Campbell and 
Shelby's regiments formed the centre, while the 
left was made up of Cleaveland's regiment, and 
the volunteers under Colonels Williams, Lacy, 
Hawthorne, and Hill, led by Cleaveland in per- 
son. By courtesy the command of the whole 
was given to Colonel Campbell of Virginia. 
Keeping the locks of their rifles dry by covering 
them with bags, blankets, and hunting-shirts, 
they took up the line of march until they ap- 
proached the base of King's Mountain, when 
" the two centre columns deployed to the right 
and left, pushed forward to attack the enemy in 
front, while the right and left wings were march- 
ing to surround him." 

Leaving their horses in charge of a few guards, 
the respective columns, led by men already fami- 



1780.] BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN. 143 

liar with the ground, proceeded with alacrity to 
take up the several positions assigned them. The 
right column was the first to come under the fire 
of the enemy. The action immediately com- 
menced. Shelby, with a part of his men, dashed 
up the ravine in the direction of Ferguson's 
camp, while the remainder of the column ascend- 
ed by a circuitous route to the summit of the 
mountain. The heaviness of the firing, and its 
destructive efiects, obliged Ferguson to send 
Dupoister with a part of the regulars to the 
other end of his line, for the purpose. of making a 
charge upon the American right. Thus reinforced 
by the regulars and the tories, they succeeded 
in driving the right column of the Americans to 
the foot of the mountain. But at this moment 
the left column under Cleaveland reached the 
opposite extremity of the encampment, and 
opened so destructive a fire upon the British 
troops in that quarter, that Ferguson was com- 
pelled to recall his regulars from their successful 
charge, and the Americans who had retreated 
before them returned with increased ardour to 
the attack. 

On their way back to repel the assault of the 
left column of the assailants, the regulars suf- 
fered severely from the fire of the riflemen led 
by Williams. Their disorder was however 
speedily remedied, and by a dashing charge they 
drove the Americans on this side also to the foot 



144 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780. 

of the hill. In the meanwhile the mountaineers 
under Sevier and Winston, having regained 
their former position, commenced plying their 
rifles with so much efiect that Ferguson ordered 
a second charge to be made upon them by his 
regulars. But the latter had already become 
so much shattered that, although supported by a 
number of Tories with butcher-knives fitted to 
the muzzles of their guns, they failed in accom- 
plishing the desired effect. 

By this time the central columns of the Ame- 
ricans had reached the plateau, and the British 
forces being now completely surrounded, were 
exposed on all sides to an incessant fire from 
enemies who were themselves protected from 
injury by intervening trees, and by the rugged 
slope of the hill. To free himself from this 
desperate strait, Ferguson resorted to a succes- 
sion of charges with the bayonet, but as one 
part of the American line receded another ad- 
vanced ; and when these were assaulted in their 
turn, those who had previously retreated, re- 
lieved from the pressure of the enemy, reascended 
the mountain and became in their turn the as- 
sailants. 

Finding that a resort to the bayonet made no 
more than a temporary impression, and that at 
the close of each charge the mountaineers suc- 
ceeded in restricting his efforts to a narrower 
circle, Ferguson determined upon making an 



1780.] BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN. 145 

attempt to break the lines of his adversaries 
with his cavalry. But his men were no sooner 
seated in^ their saddles than they were picked 
off by the unerring rifle, and the design was pre- 
sently abandoned. Still undaunted, Ferguson 
rode <«from one exposed point to anx)ther of 
equal danger, encouraging his troops to prolong 
the conflict. He carried in his wounded hand a 
shrill sounding silver whistle, the signal of which 
being universally known in the ranks, was of 
immense service throughout the battle, and gave 
a kind of ubiquity to his movements." Keeping- 
close under the crest of the hill, the American 
riflemen, with that accuracy of aim which had 
already made them famous, maintained the 
ground they had won with the utmost coolness 
and daring. At length, alarmed at the manner 
in which their ranks were ceaselessly swept away 
on every quarter, some of the Tories raised a 
white flag as a sign of surrender. It was in- 
stantly torn down by Ferguson. <«A second 
flag was hoisted at the other end of the line. 
He rode there too and cut it down with his 
sword." Dupoister, the next officer in command,, 
counselled him to surrender, but he indignantly 
spurned the advice. Cheering those nearest 
him with voice, mien, and example, and rousing 
the faltering confidence of those more distant by 
the shrill notes of his whistle, he succeeded in 
infusing a portion of his own indomitable spirit 



146 HISTORY 0^ TENNESSEE. [1780. 

into the breasts of all under his command ; and 
the contest was contined with a sort of blind, 
confused, reckless desperation, until Ferguson 
fell dead from his horse, pierced by a bullet from 
the rifle of some unknown mountaineer. 

The Americans now advanced upon the pla- 
teau, and closed more firmly around the strug- 
gling masses of the enemy. Although suffering 
a considerable loss by this more perfect ex- 
posure of their persons, they vigorously fol- 
lowed up their success until Dupoister, losing 
all hope of extricating his men, raised a flag of 
surrender and cried out for quarter. Along 
some portions of the assaulting line the firing 
was immediately suspended ; but as it still con- 
tinued in other quarters, under the impression 
that the surrender was not general, Shelby 
shouted to the enemy to throw down their guns ; 
and this being done, the attack immediately 
ceased. After the confusion incident to the 
surrender had subsided, the prisoners were or- 
dered from their arms and marched to another 
part of the plateau, where they were securely 
surrounded by a double guard. The loss of the 
British and Tories in this well-fought battle was 
two hundred and thirty-five in killed, one hun- 
dred and eighty in wounded, and seven hundred 
made prisoners of war. Fifteen hundred stand 
of arms, with a large amount of baggage and 
plunder, fell into the hands of the victors. The 



1781.] DEFEAT OJF TARLETON. 14T 

loss of the Americans was twenty-eight killed, 
and sixty wounded. The principal officers who 
fell on this occasion were Colonel Williams and 
Major Chronicle. The latter was struck down 
early in the action, the former in the moment 
of victory; Like Wolfe, he lived just long enough 
to express his satisfaction at the signal triumph 
of his countrymen, and died with a smile upon 
his lips. 

Three days after the battle of King's Moun- 
tain, and while yet ignorant of the defeat of 
Ferguson, Cornwallis ordered a powerful detach- 
ment under Tarleton to proceed to his relief. It 
was ascertained soon afterward that all succour 
came too late ; and as the patriots were every- 
where rising in arms, Tarleton was recalled, 
while Cornwallis himself, dismayed at this sud- 
den and unexpected reverse, broke up his en- 
campment at Charlotte, and hastily retreating to 
Winnsborough in South Carolina, remained in- 
active at that place until reinforcements from 
New York under Leslie enabled him once more 
to resume offensive operations. A new southern 
army under Greene was at this time in process 
of being organized. Early in January, 1781, 
Cornwallis ordered Tarleton to disperse the divi- 
sion under General Morgan, which held the 
Tories in check in the western part of South 
Carolina. The opposing forces met at the Cow- 
pens on the 17th of January, where Tarleton 



148 HISTOKY OF TENNESSEE. [1781. 

was completely routed with the loss of eight hun- 
dred men. Cornwallis with the main army im- 
mediately proceeded in pursuit of Greene, who 
retreated before him to Guilford Court House, 
where a battle was fought on the 25th of March 
which resulted unfavourably to the Americans, 
although their loss was less than that of the 
British. Greene retreated across the Dan, but 
presently returned and marched into South 
Carolina before Cornwallis was aware of his pre- 
sence. Leaving Rawdon to defend South Caro- 
lina against Greene, Cornwallis proceeded to 
invade Virginia, where he formed a junction with 
a strong force under Phillips and Arnold. After 
marching down the James Kiver, closely followed 
by Lafayette, whose army was too inferior in 
numbers to admit of his making a battle, Corn- 
wallis crossed over the peninsula to Yorktown, 
where, under instructions from Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, he proceeded to fortify himself. At this 
place, on the 6th of October, he was besieged by 
the combined forces of America and France, 
commanded by Washington, assisted by a naval 
squadron under the Count De Grasse, and on 
the 19th of the same month was compelled to 
surrender his whole force, consisting of seven 
thousand men, together with their arms, ammu- 
nition, and one hundred and sixty pieces of 
artillery. 



1776.] INDIAN HOSTILITIES. 149 



CHAPTER XII. 

Return of the mountaineers — Indian hostilities — Battle of 
Boyd's Creek — Expedition into the Cherokee country — 
Destruction of Indian towns — Greene calls for reinforce- 
ments — Response of Shelby and Sevier — They join Marion 
— Capture two British posts at Monk's Corner — Shelby ob- 
tains leave of absence — The mountaineers return home — 
Prosperity of Tennessee — Death of Unatoolah — Alarm of 
the settlers — A new station constructed — Pacific overtures 
made to the Cherokees — Council at Gist — Land-office closed 
by North Carolina — Re-opened — Arbitrary extension of 
the western boundary — Greene county established — Explo- 
rations — Land-office opened at Hillsborough — Rapid sale 
of land — Expansion of the settlements west of the moun- 
tains. 

After the battle of King's Mountain, the 
jriflemen under Sevier and Shelby returned to 
their respective homes and were disbanded. But 
Sevier had scarcely crossed the frontiers before 
he found himself compelled to organize an expe- 
dition against the Cherokees, who had already 
murdered two traders, and were preparing for 
more extended hostilities. "While this force was 
assembling, Sevier determined to strike a blow 
at such armed bodies of Cherokees as were known 
to be advancing ; and for this purpose set out to 
meet them with about one hundred men, "prin- 
cipally belonging to the companies of Captains 



150 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1781. 

Russell and Guess." After encamping on the 
second night of the march, his advance encoun- 
tered a considerable body of Indians, with whom 
a brief skirmish took place. The detachment 
presently returned to the camp, and Sevier being 
reinforced during the night by seventy men 
under Captain Pruett, set out the next morning 
in pursuit of the enemy, but did not come up 
with them until early the following morning, 
when they were discovered in ambush in the 
vicinity of Boyd's Creek. Drawn under the fire 
of the main body of the Americans by the feigned 
retreat of the detachment sent out to reconnoitre, 
they were speedily thrown into disorder, and lost 
a considerable number of their warriors before 
they could effect their escape into the adjoining 
swamp. In this battle the Indians lost twenty 
in killed. Of the Americans not a single man 
was kil>ed, and only three seriously wounded. 
Among the latter was Major Tipton. When the 
Cherokees were effectually dispersed, Sevier re- 
turned to Big Island until his reinforcements 
should arrive. In a few days he was at the head 
of seven hundred men, part of whom consisted 
of Campbell's regiment of Virginians, and a 
party of volunteers from Sullivan county under 
Major Martin. With these troops Sevier again 
set out in search of the enemy ; but the latter 
fell back as the Americans approached, and suf- 
fered them to enter the old beloved town of 



1781.] PUNISHMENT OF THE INDIANS. 151 

Chota without opposition. Chilhowee, deserted 
by its inhabitants, was presently burned ; and, 
soon after, " every town lying between the Ten- 
nessee and Hiwassee Rivers was reduced to ashes, 
the Indians flying before the troops." The 
Americans next advanced against Tellico ; but, 
upon meeting proposals for peace, consented to 
spare that settlement, and proceeded to retaliate 
upon the Chickamaugas the numerous injuries 
they had received at their hands. Finding these 
towns also deserted, they were burned by the 
troops, ^' who killed all the cattle and hogs which 
could be found, and spread over the face of the 
country a general devastation from which the 
Indians could not recover for several years. The 
march was then continued down the Coosa ; and 
when the villages upon its banks, and the country 
around had been laid waste, the army returned 
to Chota, where a peace was agreed upon, and 
the prisoners given up who had previously been 
taken by the Indians. A desultory warfare, 
however, was still kept up by some of the middle 
Cherokees. As these had hitherto escaped pu- 
nishment, Sevier, in March 1781, collected a 
small force of volunteers, and by a rapid march 
to the head waters of the Little Tennessee, fell 
suddenly upon the town of Tuckasigah, slew fifty 
warriors, and captured as many women and 
children. A number of other towns were burned, 
and their granaries destroyed. An expedition 



152 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1781. 

sent to the Clincli River the following month 
failed in bringing the Indians to an engage- 
ment. 

Notwithstanding these reverses, parties of 
Cherokee warriors continued to harass the set- 
tlements. With one hundred men Sevier marched 
against these, surprised one of their camps, kill- 
ed seventeen men, and effectually dispersed the 
remainder. He had scarcely disbanded his men 
before he received a letter from General Greene, 
calling upon him for a reinforcement of riflemen 
to assist in cutting off the communication of 
Cornwallis with South Carolina, in the event of 
his attempting to retreat southward before the 
combined American and French forces assem- 
bling at Yorktown. A similar message being 
sent at the same time to Shelby, both these 
partisan oflScers presently crossed the mountains 
at the head of all the troops they could collect. 
Learning, however, that Greene had already 
driven Rawdon from his position at Camden, and 
that the British outposts had been successively 
driven in, they concluded that their services 
were no longer necessary, and retraced their 
steps homeward, after notifying Greene of their 
intention. 

Receiving soon after another requisition from 
Greene, they again summoned the mountaineers 
to arms, and in a short time were on their 
march ; Shelby with his regiment from Sullivan, 



1781.] CAPTURE OF BRITISH POSTS. 153 

and Sevier with two hundred men from Wash- 
ington county. After the surrender of Corn- 
wallis, the riflemen, who had enlisted only for 
sixty days, desired to be dismissed ; but were 
finally induced to join the corps of Marion on 
the Santee. They reached the camp of that 
enterprising officer early in November, and were\ 
presently ordered, in conjunction with the forces 
of Colonels Mayhem and Howe, to make an as- 
sault upon the British post at Fairlawn, near 
Moi^k's Corner, where a garrison of one hundred 
and fifty Hessians had been stationed. When 
the commandant was first summoned to sur- 
render, he firmly refused ; but becoming alarm- 
ed soon after by the personal representations 
of Shelby, he finally agreed to capitulate. The 
Americans next advanced against a second post, 
some six hundred yards distant ; a brick house, 
strongly built, well fortified, and protected in 
front by an abbatis. A momentary disposition 
to resist was manifested by its garrison ; but 
their courage failed as the assailants advanced, 
and they consented to surrender themselves pri- 
soners of war. 

Toward the close of November, Shelby, who 
had been elected a delegate from Sullivan county 
to the legislature of North Carolina, obtained 
leave to absent himself from his command for 
the purpose of attending the session then ap- / 
proaching. Sevier remained with Marion for / 



154 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1781. 

some time longer ; but as the war was in effect 
closed, though the British did not evacuate 
Charleston until the middle of December, he 
finally concluded to return home and disband 
his men, whose term of service had expired. 

From this period until the ratification of 
peace in 1783, the prosperity of Tennessee was 
marked by a large increase of emigration. The 
district of Salisbury was presently divided, and 
a new district, named after General Morgan, 
was formed of Washington and Sullivan counties. 
Some slight disturbances took place with the 
Indians, in one of which a Cherokee chief named 
Unatoolah, or Butler, lost his life at the hands 
of Major Hubbard, a courageous but reckless 
borderer, the whole of whose manhood had been 
devoted to revenging upon the Indians the losses 
he had sustained at their hands. 

The American settlements had extended to 
the French Broad; and during an interval of 
peace with the Cherokees of the Upper Towns, 
and of scarcity among the settlers. Colonel Hub- 
bard, accompanied by a fellow-soldier, ventured 
into the Indian nation in quest of a supply of 
corn. Already famous in border warfare, it was 
his fortune in one of the later encounters to un- 
horse Unatoolah, the chieftain among the Upper 
Cherokees, who immediately lost caste and com- 
mand among his followers. Smarting to retrieve 
this disgrace, Unatoolah no sooner learned that 



1783.] HUBBARD AND UNATOOLAH. 155 

Hubbard was approaching the town of Citico, 
than he took with him a single companion and 
went out to meet his enemy. In a little while 
the two warriors came within sight of the Ame- 
ricans, advancing on foot and leading their horses 
by the bridle-rein. Unatoolah, or Butler, as he 
was called by the whites, immediately rode up 
and demanded, in an insolent manner, the pur- 
pose of their visit. Hubbard responded with 
great calmness, that the war being over, he had 
brought into the Indian country some clothing 
to exchange for corn, and carelessly exhibiting 
the contents of his sack, invited the Indians to 
drink of the whiskey, which he produced at the 
same time. He sought still further to disarm 
them of their resentment by depositing his rifle 
against a tree, yet not beyond the reach of his 
hand. But Butler and his companion received 
these pacific overtures with increasing sullen- 
ness. Both still remained seated in the sad- 
dle. After some manoeuvering on the part of 
the Americans, who desired to avoid hostilities 
lest it should involve the frontiers once more in 
a general war, Unatoolah endeavoured to thrust 
himself between Hubbard and his rifle. This 
design was soon penetrated by the latter, who 
resolved to defeat it. For this purpose he care- 
lessly sufi'ered his hand to rest on the muzzle of 
his rifle, but still allowed the butt to remain on 
the ground, keeping at the same time a watchful 



156 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1783. 

eye upon his cunning and vindictive adversary. 
Frustrated in his original scheme, Unatoolah 
became excited, and after aiming a blow at Hub- 
bard, which was avoided by the* latter, he sud- 
denly levelled his gun and fired. The ball nar- 
rowly missed piercing Hubbard to the brain, the 
hair being cut from his temple. Though stunned 
for a moment, he presently recovered, and 
although the retreating Indians were by this 
time eighty yards distant, a bullet from his 
rifle brought Unatoolah to the ground, mortally 
wounded. His companion continued his flight. 
When the Americans came up with the dying 
warrior they placed him, at his desire, against a 
tree, and then inquired of him whether his nation 
was for peace or war. " They are for war," re- 
plied the bleeding chieftain; ''and if you go any 
farther, they will take your scalp." A coarse 
and abusive dialogue succeeded, during which 
Unatoolah vented upon Hubbard the most in- 
sulting invectives. At last the hot blood of the 
borderer could bear it no longer, and with one 
blow from his rifle he dashed out the brains of 
his antagonist. 

Apprehensive that retaliatory measures would 
be attempted by the mountain Cherokees, the 
settlers drew closer together, and constructed a 
stationatHenry's, near the mouth of the Dumplin, 
to which they could retire in case of emergency. 



1783.] EXTENSION OF FRONTIER. 157 

to preserve the peace. They sent a message to 
the upper towns deploring the loss of Unatoolah, 
and proposed that a council should be held at 
Gist's, now Henry's, for the adjustment of the 
difficulty. To this proposition the Cherokees 
assented ; and although the number of those who 
attended was small, the conference resulted in 
the preservation of the existing truce. 

The great increase of emigrants into the Ten- 
nessee territory led to a rapid extension of the 
frontier settlement, and to renewed jealousies, 
complaints, and apprehensions on the part of the 
Cherokees. In a vain endeavour to keep the 
restless border population within their present 
bounds, the assembly of North Carolina closed 
the office for the sale of lands in the summer of 
1781, but re-opened it in May, 1783, ^' for the 
purpose of paying the arrears then due the 
officers and soldiers of that part of the conti- 
nental line which was raised in North Carolina, 
and of extinguishing the national debt." 

About the same time, by an arbitrary enact- 
ment, and in direct contempt of the Indian 
claims to the territory, the western boundary of 
North Carolina was extended. A portion of 
their old hunting-grounds were however reserved 
to the Cherokees, the lines of which were clearly 
and distinctly defined. During the session the 
governor was authorized to meet the Cherokees 
in council, and endeavour to effect a treaty with 



158 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1783. 

them. Josepli Martin was also appointed Indian 
agent. A portion of the county of Washington 
was detached and formed into a separate county, 
which received the name of Greene. 

Explorations still continued. General James 
White, accompanied by Colonels Love, Kamsey, 
and others, <' explored the Tennessee country as 
low as the confluence of the Holston and Ten- 
nessee." Some few Indian excesses still con- 
tinued, but they were not of a character to deter 
settlers, many of whose lives had been passed in 
the midst of pressing dangers. An act of the 
general assembly designated the district within 
which the bounty land given to the North Caro- 
lina soldiers, who had formed a part of the con- 
tinental line, were to be located ; and, on the 
21st of October, a land office was opened at 
Hillsborough for the sale of lands not included 
in the previous reservations. Within six months 
large quantities of land was taken up, either 
by speculators or actual emigrants ; and the 
following year the rude log cabins of adven- 
turous pioneers were to be found scattered along 
the banks of the Big and Little Pigeon, and on 
Boyd's Creek south of French Broad. 



1783.] GOVERNMENT DIFFICULTIES. 159 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Recognition of American independence — Difficulties of the 
federal and state governments — Cession of public lands by- 
North Carolina — Alarm of the mountaineers — Convention 
at Jonesborough — Declaration of Independence — State of 
Franklin — North Carolina annuls her deed of cession — The 
mountaineers form a separate jurisdiction — Proclamation of 
Governor Martin — Its effect in the western counties — 'Po- 
litical antagonisms — Increase of the party favourable to 
North Carolina — Tipton and Sevier — -Outrages committed 
on both sides — Reactionary spirit — Return to the jurisdiction 
of North Carolina — Execution issued against the property 
of Sevier — Its seizure — Rash conduct of Sevier — 'His arrest 
— Escape — Election to senate of North Carolina. 

The general burst of joy whicli, in 1783, suc- 
ceeded the recognition by Great Britain of the 
independence of the United States had scarcely 
subsided, before it was followed by a period of 
gloom and depression which fostered a spirit of 
anarchy among the malecontents, and threatened 
finally to end in a dissolution of the confederacy. 

The chief source of dijBficulty was the immense 
debt which had been contracted to carry on the 
war, both by the states individually and by the 
general government. After many plans had 
been devised, without success, to meet this press- 
ing exigency. Congress was constrained to call 
upon such states as held vacant lands to cede 



160 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1784. 

them to the United States, in order that the 
money arising from their sale might be applied 
to the liquidation of the national debt. Among 
the states thus appealed to was North Carolina. 
Virginia had already consented to cede the large 
body of lands held by her ; and during the legis- 
lative session of 1784 North Carolina followed 
her example. 

But the western pioneers of the latter state, 
who had won their homesteads by constant vigi- 
lance, active warfare, and a condition of suffer- 
ing unknown to the people of the sea board, were 
indisposed to see themselves placed once more 
beyond the pale of the law, and to have to support 
the whole weight of Indian hostilities during the 
two years which had been allowed by North 
Carolina for Congress to accept the terms of the 
cession. 

They accordingly met in convention at Jones- 
borough, on the 23d of August, 1784, and after 
choosing John Sevier, president, and Langdon 
Carter, clerk, adopted a resolution forming them- 
selves into a separate and distinct state, inde- 
pendent of North Carolina. By a subsequent 
resolution, the government of the new state was 
vested in commissioners until such time as a 
constitution was adopted by a second convention, 
which was appointed to meet at the same place, 
on the 16th of September. For some cause, 
however, this convention did not hold its session 



1785.] STATE OF FRANKLIN. 161 

until November; and in the mean time the legis- 
lature of North Carolina becoming alarmed at 
the sturdy method by ■which the mountaineers 
proposed to redress their own grievances, sought 
to hold them to their allegiance by retracting 
the cession previously made to the general go- 
vernment, and by providing, in a more efficient 
manner, for the military and civil government 
of the western counties. In the convention held 
at Jonesborough in November, differences of 
opinion arose among the delegates respecting the 
policy of separating from North Carolina at that 
time, which resulted in a disorderly adjournment. 
The tidings which Joseph Martin brought soon 
after across the mountains of the recent action 
of the legislature — the formation of the western 
counties into a judicial district, the grant of a 
general court, and the organization of their mi- 
litia into a separate brigade, of which Sevier was 
appointed brigadier-general — would, it was at 
first supposed, arrest the tide of popular disaf- 
fection ; but when the convention again met on 
the 14th of December, it was resolved to secede 
from North Carolina, and a constitution was 
adopted for the state of Franklin, leaving it to 
be ratified or rejected by the people, whose dele- 
gates were to meet for this purpose at Green- 
ville, on the 14th of November, 1785. This 
body accordingly met at the time and place ap- 
pointed; the constitution was ratified. After 



162 HISTOBY OF TENNESSEE. [1785. 

this the members formally organized themselves 
into a legislative assembly, by the election of 
Langdon Carter as speaker of the senate, and 
William Cage speaker of the House of Com- 
mons. John Sevier was chosen governor ; David 
Campbell, judge of the superior court; and 
Joshua Gist and John Henderson, assistant 
judges. Various acts were subsequently passed 
for the purpose of facilitating the operations of 
the new government; and, before the assembly 
adjourned, the speakers of both houses were 
directed to notify Governor Martin, of North 
Carolina, of the formation of the counties of 
Washington, Sullivan, and Greene, into a sepa- 
rate sovereignty, styling itself the state of 
Franklin. 

On the reception of this " Declaration of In- 
dependence," Governor Martin summoned a 
meeting of his council ; and on the 25th of April 
issued a proclamation, in which he contended 
that, as the grievances of the mountaineers had 
already been redressed, the revolt was a rank 
usurpation of the authority of North Carolina, 
and only tended to the injury of the people of 
Franklin, and the dishonour of the country. He 
called upon the mountaineers to return to their 
allegiance ; and assured them that any grievance 
of which they yet complained, if presented by 
their representatives in a constitutional manner, 
should be met by the next legislature with a 



1785.] governor's proclamation. 163 

prompt and efficient remedy. If they were still 
bent on separation, he proposed that it should be 
on terms honourable to both parties ; but if, on 
the contrary, they were determined to continue 
in their present course, they might be assured 
that the spirit of North Carolina was not so 
damped, or her resources so exhausted, ''but 
that she may take satisfaction for this great 
injury received, regain her government over the 
revolted territory, or render it not worth pos- 
sessing." 

This able state paper was not without its 
effect among those to whom it was especially 
addressed. It made converts of many who, led 
away by the enthusiasm for independence, had 
neither done justice to the efforts which North 
Carolina had really made to satisfy the com- 
plaints of her western counties, nor had seriously 
contemplated the consequences which were likely 
to arise from their sanction of an independent 
government. But although the minority which 
had always opposed a separation from the pre- 
sent state was considerable strengthened, there 
yet remained a large portion of the community 
in favour of maintaining a separate jurisdiction. 

To manifest still further the desire of North 
Carolina for a peaceful termination of the exist- 
ing difficulties, the legislature, which assembled 
at Newbern in November, 1785, passed an act 
to bury in oblivion the conduct of the people of 



164 HISTORY or TENNESSEE. [1786. 

Franklin, on condition that they returned to 
their allegiance, and sustained, in the execution 
of their duty, the officers already appointed by 
North Carolina. But although the adherents 
of the latter state, supported by Colonel Tipton, 
gradually gained ground in the new common- 
wealth, a majority still clung to Sevier, and re- 
fused to recognise any government but the one 
they themselves had organized. 

In this opposition of parties, disorders sprang 
up which presently degenerated into lawlessness. 
Both governments claimed jurisdiction, and both 
sought to exercise it. The consequence was that 
both became inefficient. Party quarrels ensued ; 
old friends became enemies ; Tipton and his fol- 
lowers openly supported the claims of South 
Carolina; Sevier sought to maintain liis authority 
as the executive officer of Franklin. This an- 
tagonistic spirit led to the commission of various 
outrages. In 1786 a party, headed by Tipton, 
entered Jonesborough, the capital of Washington 
county, dispersed the justices of the court at that 
time in session, and took possession of their 
papers. Sevier retaliated by ejecting, in a simi- 
lar manner, an officer appointed by North Caro- 
lina. Acts of this character speedily became 
more frequent, and the followers of Sevier and 
Tipton more imbittered against each other. 
The principals themselves met, not long after, at 
Greensboro, and were presently engaged in a 



1787.] INTESTINE DISSENSIONS. 165 

personal conflict, wliich was brought to a close, 
without injury to either of the belligerents, by 
the timely interposition of their respective 
friends. 

But in the midst of these inglorious quarrels, 
Governor Sevier did not neglect to defend from 
Indian aggressions the state over which he had 
been called to preside. Outlying bands of hos- 
tile Cherokees had already committed several 
murders on the Holston, and driven in a number 
of the settlers who had opened farms in the 
neighbourhood of Beaver Creek. Collecting a 
hundred and sixty mounted riflemen, he pushed 
forward into the heart of the enemy's country, 
destroyed three of the valley towns and killed 
fifteen warriors. The assembling of the Chero- 
kees in overwhelming numbers prevented Sevier 
from following up the advantages he had gained ; 
but the promptness and energy he had already 
displayed had the desired efi"ect of restoring the 
extreme frontier to a state of comparative se- 
curity. 

He was far less successful, however, in giving 
peace to the distracted state of Franklin. The 
continuance of intestine dissensions, and the nice 
balance of parties which took place in 1787, in- 
duced the people to refuse to pay taxes either to 
North Carolina, or to the local government, 
until the supremacy of one or the other should 
be more generally acknowledged. In this state 



166 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1787. 

of affairs, and with his government tottering to 
its downfall, Sevier earnestly appealed to North 
Carolina for a ratification of the independence 
of the state of Franklin, and to Franklin him- 
self, and the governors of Georgia and Virginia, 
for counsel and assistance. Disappointed on all 
sides, he finally rested for support upon his im- 
mediate friends, conscious of the rectitude of his 
own intentions, and jutifying the origin of the 
separation by the cession which North Carolina 
at first made to the general government. 

But the people were already weary of a feud 
which threatened, at every fresh outbreak, to 
end in bloodshed. In 1787 the last legislature 
of the state of Franklin held its session at Green- 
ville. North Carolina had ofi'ered terms of com- 
promise, which tended greatly to soften the as- 
perities of those who had hitherto resisted her 
jurisdiction. The growing desire to restore 
peace and order in the revolting counties was 
exhibited in the election of the new delegates, a 
majority of those chosen being favourable to a 
reunion with the parent state. Meeting in this 
frame of mind, they presently authorized the 
election of representatives to the legislature of 
North Carolina, an action which was subse- 
quently endorsed by the people, who once more 
recognised the maternal authority by choosing 
members to the general assembly as of old. 
Sevier still held out. but his nartisans were 



1788.] KASH CONDUCT OF SEVIER. 167 

gradually deserting him. The conciliatory mea- 
sures of North Carolina presently disarmed the 
malecontents of all further argument for opposing 
the reunion ; and in February, 1788, the state 
of Franklin ceased to exist. 

Unhappily, the progress of the late events had 
not tended to lessen the personal animosity ex- 
isting between Sevier and Tipton. Both were 
brave men, and both believed they were actuated 
only by principles of patriotism and honour. An 
occurrence took place about this time which 
brought them into collision. Under an execution 
issued against the estate of Sevier, the sheriff, 
acting by the authority of the state of North 
Carolina, had levied upon his negroes, and con- 
veyed them for safe-keeping to the house of 
Colonel Tipton. This intelligence reaching 
Sevier while on the frontiers, he determined, as 
governor of the state of Franklin, to resist a 
jurisdiction which he had not yet acknowledged; 
to retake his negroes by force of arms, and to 
punish those who, he contended, had acted ille- 
gally. He accordingly put himself at the head 
of one hundred and fifty men, and hastening to 
the house of Tipton, summoned the latter to sur- 
render. Meeting with a firm refusal, he invested 
the house within which Tipton had hastily col- 
lected a garrison of fifteen men, equally bold 
and determined as himself. Some shots were 
exchanged, by which one man was killed, and a 



168 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1788. 

man and "woman wounded. During the second 
night of the siege, while the followers of Sevier 
were gathered round their watch fires, Tipton was 
reinforced by troops from Sullivan county. 
Making an unexpected sally upon the camp of 
Sevier, he succeeded in putting his assailants to 
a complete route, killing the sheriff of Washing- 
ton county, and making prisoners of the two sons 
of Sevier, whom he was only prevented from im- 
mediately executing by the earnest entreaties of 
his friends. In October, Sevier was himself arrest- 
ed for high treason, and carried, first to Jonesbo- 
rough, and subsequently to the jail at Morgan- 
town, from whence, by the assistance of his sons, 
he escaped. Notwithstanding these excesses, the 
courage, patriotism and generosity of Sevier were 
warmly recognised. His services were remem- 
bered, and his faults forgotten. Being chosen 
the following year to represent Greene county 
in the senate of North Carolina, the act disqua- 
lifying him from holding office under the state 
government was repealed ; and with the renewal 
of his oath of allegiance, the whole dispute was 
amicably closed. 



1780.] ROBERTSON'S COLONY. 169 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Robertson's colony on the Cumberland — Increase in popula- 
tion — Hostility of the Indians — Keywood and Hay killed — 
Freeland's station attacked' — The settlers take refuge in 
block-houses — 'Cause of Indian hostility — Settlement on 
Red River broken up — Donaldson's party attacked — Panic 
among the settlers — Robertson's resolute advice — Freeland's 
station surprised — Repulse of the Indians — Desultory war- 
fare — Robertson's fort at the Bluff invested — Eight of the 
garrison killed by a stratagem — Custom of the country — 
Close of Revolutionary war — Temporary cessation of hos- 
tilities — Indian council at the Bluff— Spanish intrigues — 
Renewal of Indian incursions — Desperate skirmishes- 
Treaty of Hopewell — Continuance of hostilities — Robert- 
son's expedition — Attack on Hay at the mouth of Duck 
River — Surprise of Indian village by Robertson, and capture 
of traders — Capture of French trading boats — Division of 
the spoils. 

It will be remembered that, in 1779, a party 
of emigrants under James Robertson first com- 
menced a settlement on the Cumberland. To 
these was subsequently added a party under 
Colonel Donaldson. As the reports of the ferti- 
lity of that region became more disseminated, 
other emigrants made their appearance in the 
new settlement ; which, as it grew in population, 
aroused the hostility of. the Upper Creeks and 
Cherokees, whose war-parties were constantly on 
the alert to cut off all strao^glers, and to lay 



170 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1780. 

waste those plantations that were either badly 
defended or too remote from timely assistance. 
To the sufferings and privations of a winter pe- 
culiarly severe was added the constant dread of 
assassination. In the spring of 1780, Keywood, 
a hunter, fell a victim to outlying savages on 
Richland Creek, a few miles only from the sta- 
tion at the Bluff. Soon after this a Mr. Hay 
was killed on the Lick Branch. Freeland's sta- 
tion was invested ; and from this time small bands 
of warriors pursued their sanguinary career, 
murdering the settlers, burning their houses, and 
laying waste their crops, whenever an opportu- 
nity offered. Being weak in numbers, and too 
far distant from the Holston and Watauga to 
receive assistance from their countrymen, the 
Cumberland emigrants were obliged to abandon 
such of their farms as were most exposed to the 
ravages of the enemy, and fly with their families 
to the shelter of a few forts and block-houses. 
The cause of this implacable warfare may be 
found in the encroachments of the whites. 

General George Rogers Clarke, by whose bold 
and romantic exploits the British forts in Illinois 
had been captured, undertook to overawe the 
Chickasaws by building Fort Jefferson, on the 
east bank of the Mississippi, eighteen miles be- 
low the mouth of the Ohio. A few plantations 
had also been opened on Red River ; and, as the 
Chickasaws claimed all the territory west of the 



1780.] DESULTORY V/ARFARE. 171 

Tennessee, they resolved to resist these intru- 
sions by force of arms. The emigrants on Ked 
River were the first to feel the effects of their 
enmity. The settlement was broken up, two of 
the men killed, and the remainder compelled to 
fly for refuge to the fort at the Bluff. Even the 
latter, though better protected, was not secure 
from Indian depredations. A party under Co- 
lonel Donaldson, which had ascended the Cum- 
berland for the purpose of freighting two boats 
with corn, was intercepted by the Indians, who 
killed three persons, and wounded and took pri- 
soners several others. Among the killed was a 
son of Captain Robertson. 

Disheartened by the pertinacity with which the 
Indians continued their attacks, and by the loss 
of the greater portion of the corn upon which 
they had relied for their winter supplies, a large 
number of inhabitants abandoned the country, 
and sought safety in Kentucky and Illinois. 
Others, more daring or more hopeful, unwilling 
to lose the result of their labours, resolved to re- 
main and defend themselves in the best manner 
they could. The leader and adviser of these 
resolute men was Captain James Robertson. 
About the middle of January, a few hours only 
after the return of the latter from Kentucky, 
the station at Freelands was surprised by an 
armed band of Indians. Their success was only 

rtn.rfifil T^.nnsfifl frnTYi flipiv ftlnml^pvfa \\\r +,Tia 



172 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1782. 

vigilant Robertson, the garrison, eleven in num- 
ber, repelled the assailants, with the loss, during 
the attack, of Major Lucas, and a negro belong- 
ing to Captain Robertson. This repulse only 
stimulated the revengeful savages to commit 
other outrages in quarters more defenceless. 
iBeing joined by reinforcements of Cherokees, 
they cut off many of the inhabitants who had 
not yet abandoned their plantations, drove in 
the garrison at Mansco's station, killed two of 
the men who had loitered behind their com- 
panions, and, lying ambushed in the woods, shot 
down many who were seeking safety in flight. 

Early in April a large body of Cherokee war- 
riors secretly invested the fort at the Bluff. 
Nineteen of its garrison, drawn out by a strata- 
gem, were surrounded and eight of them killed — 
the remainder, many of whom w^ere grievously 
wounded, succeeded in fighting their way back 
to the fort. Frustrated in their main design, 
the Indians presently retired; but throughout 
the summer of this year, and Ihe whole of 1782, 
they kept up their desultory attacks until nearly 
all the isolated stations were broken up, and the 
remaining inhabitants had taken refuge at the 
Bluff or had abandoned the territory in despair. 
Those who still sturdily sought to maintain pos- 
session of a soil already ensanguined with the 
blood of their kindred and friends, were com- 
pelled to exercise a constant vigilance. «'It 



1783.] VIGILANCE OF SETTLERS. 173 

became a custom of the country for one or two 
persons to stand as watchmen or sentinels, while 
others laboured in the field ; and even while one 
went to a spring to drink, another stood on the 
watch with his rifle ready to protect him by 
shooting a creeping Indian or one rising from 
the thickets of canes and brush that covered him 
from view ; and wherever four or five were as- 
sembled together at a spring, or other place 
where business required them to be, they held 
their guns in their hands, and with their backs 
turned to each other, one faced the north, 
another the south, another the west — watching 
in all directions for a lurking or creeping 
enemy." 

During the period when most harassed by 
their subtle enemies, and consequently least able 
to pursue their customary labours without ex- 
posing themselves to the utmost danger, the 
inhabitants at the Bluff seriously contemplated 
the abandonment of a territory they were too 
few in number adequately to defend. But the de- 
sign being strenuously opposed by Captain Ro- 
bertson, they yielded to his mature experience, 
and finally concluded to remain where they were. 
Happily for the safety of this little community 
the Bevolutionary war was terminated soon after, 
and the Indians, no longer instigated by British 
agents, began to relax in their hostility, while 
the increase of emigration from the older states 



174 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1784. 

rendered the settlement upon the Cumberland 
better able to meet and retaliate upon their 
enemies the outrages they were still disposed to 
commit. During the year 1783 some few set- 
tlers lost their lives ; but events were now assum- 
ing a more pacific aspect. The Chickasaws, 
responding to overtures made them by commis- 
sioners appointed for that purpose, held in the 
spring of this year a council at the Bluff, which 
terminated in the cession to North Carolina of 
all that region, " extending nearly forty miles 
south of the Cumberland River to the ridge di- 
viding the tributaries of that river from those of 
Duck and Elk." 

But Spain, whose possessions in Florida and 
Louisiana were menaced by the advance of Ame- 
rican settlers, was not disposed to permit the 
latter to maintain peaceful possession of the 
territory they occupied. Spanish agents were 
accordingly sent among the southern Indians to 
provoke them to a renewal of hostilities ; and in 
this they were so far successful as to induce va- 
rious small war parties to take up the hatchet 
and lay waste those portions of the frontiers 
which were most open to attack. In this way 
various hunters, stragglers, and exploring par- 
ties were surprised and killed. Impressed with 
the belief that these incursions were encouraged 
by the Spanish authorities, Robertson, during 
the year 1784, wrote to M. Portell, an officer 



1784.] DESPERATE SKIRMISHES. 175 

of that government, expressing his desire to 
maintain amicable relations ; but though he re- 
ceived a friendly response, the Indians continued 
their incursions. They fired upon Philip Tram- 
mell and Philip Mason while in the act of skin- 
ning a deer at the head of White's Creek ; Mason 
was wounded, but both the men succeeded in 
reaching Eaton's station, from whence they ob- 
tained a reinforcement of volunteers, and set out 
in pursuit of the marauders. The Indians being 
overtaken, a skirmish ensued, wherein Mason re- 
ceived a second wound which proved mortal. 
Trammell killed two of the Indians, but the lat- 
ter being reinforced, compelled the Americans 
to retreat. These in their turn receiving an 
accession to their force again started in pursuit 
of their enemies, and brought on the fight anew. 
Trammell and an associate named Hopkins threw 
themselves into the midst of the Indians, and 
fell fighting gallantly to the last. The contest 
was kept up by the survivors until both parties 
were weary, and separated by common consent. 
Another skirmish, in which equal bravery was 
exhibited, took place at the head waters of 
Drake's Creek. In the latter contest a man 
named Aspie received a wound which completely 
disabled him. At the same time Andrew Lucas 
was shot through the throat. Johnson and 
Spencer, the only two remaining unhurt, stood 
their ground with great determination, but were 



176 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1787. 

at length compelled to give way and leave Aspie 
to Ms fate. Lucas, who had fallen behind a 
bush, escaped the search of the Indians, and 
reached his home soon after the battle. But 
though parties of Chickasaw and Cherokee war- 
riors continually hovered around the settlement, 
waylaying and murdering small bands of hunters 
and emigrants almost with impunity, their cease- 
less hostility did not deter pioneers from spread- 
ing themselves over the territory and taking up 
such lands as promised to yield the best return 
for their labours. The constant peril to which 
these hardy borderers were exposed at length 
induced the United States government to send 
commissioners to the Chickasaws, by whose ex- 
ertions a council was held at Hopewell on the 
10th of January, 1786. It resulted in a treaty, 
defining the boundary of the lands belonging 
to the Chickasaws, and confirn^ing the treaty 
made in 1783 with the commissioners of North 
Carolina. 

But treaty stipulations were not likely to be 
kept by savage warriors who daily saw their 
hunting-grounds restricted by the steady increase 
of a white population ; and in 1787 their inroads 
became so frequent that the assembly of North 
Carolina authorized the organization of a batta- 
lion for the protection of the frontiers. From 
some cause or other this necessary measure was 
delayed, and Robertson, finding his colony con- 



1787.] ROBERTSON'S EXPEDITION. 177 

tinued to be harassed by the Creeks and Chero- 
kees, determined to assume the offensive and 
march against the nearest of their towns. He 
was the more disposed to adopt this resolution 
from the belief that hostilities were now fomented 
by French traders from the Wabash, who sup- 
plied the Indians with arms, and found their 
own aggrandizement in fostering a hostile feel- 
ing against the Americans. On the 1st of June, 
1787, he placed himself at the head of one hun- 
dred and thirty mounted volunteers, who had 
assembled at his station from different parts of 
the Cumberland region. Accompanied by Colo- 
nels Hays and Ford, he set out for the Tennes- 
see River, piloted by two Chickasaws. At the 
same time Captain David Hay, with his company 
and three boats freighted with supplies, left 
Nashville for the muscle shoals. While passing 
up the Tennessee River the flotilla was suddenly 
attacked by a party of Indians ambushed among 
the cane at the mouth of Duck River, who killed 
several of the crew, and wounded so many others, 
that Hay was compelled to return to Nashville 
for surgical assistance. 

This unfortunate occurrence reduced the 
troops under Robertson to great straits, by de- 
priving them of provisions upon w^hich they had 
relied. 

After a long and fatiguing march, Robertson 
struck the Tennessee River at the lower end of 



178 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1787. 

the muscle shoals, where the troops concealed 
themselves until night. Having discovered se- 
veral Indian cabins on the opposite side of the 
river, seven men crept down the bank, and se- 
creting themselves in the canes below, kept up 
a keen watch upon the southern shore. Pre- 
sently some Indians made their appearance, who, 
after looking cautiously around them, entered a 
canoe and paddled out some distance into the 
stream. Seemingly satisfied by this reconnois- 
sance that no enemies were near, they returned 
from whence they had started. Desirous of cap- 
turing an Indian alive, Robertson despatched 
Captain Rains with fifteen men up the river for 
that purpose ; but after ascending nearly to the 
mouth of Blue Water, the party returned with- 
out succeeding in their object. It being deter- 
mined to cross the river under cover of the night, 
soon after sunset the seven men in ambush below 
swam to the opposite shore. Approaching noise- 
lessly the cabins, they found them deserted ; but 
they returned to their companions with an im- 
mense canoe having a hole in its bottom. Stop- 
ping the leak with their shirts, forty men 
embarked with their firearms. The crazy ves- 
sel had scarcely left the shore before it began to 
fill, and they were compelled to put back. After 
this mishap the design was abandoned until day- 
light, when the hole was covered with a piece 
of linn bark, and some forty or fifty men sue- 



1787.] INDIAN VILLAGE SURPEISED. 179 

ceeded in reaching the southern shore, leaving 
their companions to swim the river with the 
horses. A heavy rain coming on, they took 
shelter in the deserted cabins until the clouds 
dispersed, when they mounted their horses, and, 
taking a well-beaten path leading westwardly, 
pressed rapidly forward. After riding some five 
miles they passed some cornfields, and came soon 
after to Cold Water Creek, which the greater 
portion of the troops crossed in single file. On 
the low grounds, within three hundred yards of 
the river, stood a number of cabins. 

Surprised by this unexpected invasion, the 
people of the town fled hastily to their boats ; 
but being closely followed by the main body of 
the troops under Robertson, suffered severely 
during their flight. Such as crossed the river 
fell under the fire of a detachment headed by 
Captain Rains, which had been left on the other 
side of the creek for the purpose of intercepting 
the fugitives. Twenty-six Indians, accompanied 
by three French traders and a white woman, 
sought to efi'ect their escape in a boat. Refusing 
to surrender, they were fired upon and every one 
killed. The principal trader and several other 
Frenchmen were made prisoners. In the town 
the Americans made prize of large stores of taffai, 
arms and ammunition, and a great variety of 
articles adapted to Indian traffic. After collect- 
ing all the canoes upon the river and placing a 



180 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1787. 

guard over them, tlie troops killed all the live 
stock they could capture, and set fire to the town. 
The following morning they buried the whites, 
and having liberally rewarded their Chickasaw 
guides, loaded several of the boats with the re- 
mainder of the captured stores and despatched 
them down the river in charge of three men. 
Robertson, marching by land, overtook the boats 
during the second day, and crossing the Tennes- 
see near Colbert's Ferry, encamped on the north 
shore. 

At this encampment all the wearing apparel 
belonging to the French prisoners was restored 
to them. Being set at liberty, and provided with 
a canoe and a liberal supply of provisions, they 
presently took their departure. When the re- 
mainder of the sugar and coffee had been divided 
among the troops, the boats containing the mer- 
chandise were sent round to Nashville, while the 
mounted men struck across the country in the 
direction of the Cumberland. As the boats de- 
scended the Tennessee, the men in charge of 
them met a party of French traders with addi- 
tional supplies of goods. The latter mistaking 
the boatmen for their own countrymen, saluted 
them by firing off their guns, and before they 
could reload the Americans boarded the boats 
and made them prisoners. 

In due time the daring voyagers reached the 



1787.] INDIAN WARFARE CONTINUES. 181 

Cumberland settlement, and the • merchandise 
being sold soon after at Eaton's station, the 
proceeds were divided among the troops. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Desultory Indian warfare continued — American attempts at 
retaliation — Robertson and Bledsoe remonstrate with McGil- 
livray — Death of Colonel Bledsoe — Robertson's negotiations 
with the Creeks — Hostilities continue — Increase of emigra- 
tion — Causes which influenced it — State grants and reserva- 
tions — District of Morgan established — Courts of law — Da- 
vidson county established — Nashville receives its name — 
Partial cessation of hostilities — Road opened through the 
wilderness — Sumner and Tennessee counties established — 
Voyage of Colonel Brown down the Tennessee — Massacre 
of his party by the Chickamauga Indians — Captivity of Mrs. 
Brown and the younger children — Their release — North 
Carolina cedes her western lands to the United States. 

The relief aiSforded by the destruction of the 
Indian town at Coldwater was but temporary. 
Exasperated by the losses experienced on that 
occasion, numerous small bands of warriors pre- 
sently attacked all the weak points along the 
frontiers, carrying terror and devastation wher- 
ever they went. In the fall, a war-party under 
Blackfoot was pursued by a company of mounted 
men under Captain Shannon. They came up 
with them on the bank of the Tennessee River, 
and, after a desperate conflict, during which 

16 



182 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1788. 

Blackfoot and five of his followers were killed, 
succeeded in putting them to flight. This suc- 
cess stimulated the Americans on the Duck and 
Elk Rivers to form themselves into parties to 
retaliate the murders which had been committed. 
The security of the frontiers was further promoted 
by the arrival of a battalion of mounted men 
under Major Evans, by reinforcements of emi- 
grants, and by the formation of a company of 
rangers whose duty it was to traverse the forest 
in all directions, and afford timely warning to 
the settlers of the approach of their insidious 
enemies. In this service Captain Rains was 
particularly conspicuous. Notwithstanding, how- 
ever, all the precautions which had been taken, 
the savages penetrated into the settlement, and 
killed several persons near the mouth of the 
Harper and in the vicinity of the Bluff. Being 
hotly pursued by Rains, with a body of mounted 
men, they were overtaken at Rutherford's Creek, 
and dispersed with the loss of one of their num- 
ber. On a second occasion Rains succeeded in 
putting another war party to the route, after 
killing four men and capturing an Indian boy. 
Several other excursions were made toward the 
close of 1787, which resulted in a similar man- 
ner ; but they only afforded a partial relief. In 
1788 the war broke out afresh, and a number of 
settlers were killed ; among the slain was a son 
of Colonel Robertson. 



1780.] ROBERTSON'S NEGOTIATIONS. 183 

Believing that the Spanish authorities in Flo- 
rida encouraged the Creeks to persevere in their 
repeated attacks upon the American frontiers, 
Colonels Robertson and Bledsoe addressed a re- 
monstrance to Colonel McGillivray, a half-blood 
chief, who exercised almost unlimited influence 
over the Creek nation ; but though the response 
was couched in pacific language, the sanguinary 
excesses of the savages were not abated. 

Colonel Bledsoe was slain soon after in a mid- 
night attack upon his brother's station. Repress- 
ing his resentment at the inestimable loss which 
the colony had sustained by the death of his able 
and energetic associate, Robertson continued his 
negotiations with McGillivray, and earnestly 
called upon him to restrain the ferocious incur- 
sions of his warriors. <' It is a matter of no 
reflection," wrote Robertson sorrowfully, <«to a 
brave man, to see a father, a son, or a brother 
fall in the field of action ; but it is a serious and 
melancholy incident to see a helpless woman or 
an innocent child tomahawked in their own 
houses." But though he appealed thus earnestly 
to the better feelings of McGillivray, and though 
Congress attempted to open negotiations, that 
wily chieftain listened alike to the Americans 
and the Spaniards, and while professing to the 
one a desire for peace, was covertly intriguing 
with the other to prosecute the war. 

Growing more wary, but not less active, his 



184 - HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1782. 

warriors continued to murder the settlers wliere- 
ever an opportunity offered, and by taking to 
flight immediately after very generally escaped 
their pursuers. During the month of June, 1780, 
they attempted to surprise Robertson's station 
in open day, while the men were at work in the 
fields. Being foiled in their design, they re- 
treated rapidly, and though hotly pursued, 
escaped with only the loss of one man killed 
and six wounded. 

But the danger to which the Cumberland peo- 
ple were so constantly exposed did not deter 
emigrants from joining them in large numbers. 
Guarded by a strong escort, they passed safely 
through the perils of the intervening wilderness, 
and were presently to be found assisting to repel 
the pertinacious attacks of their ubiquitous 
enemy. 

Other causes operated largely at this time in 
increasing the population on the south-western 
frontier, the chief of which was the bounty in 
lands granted during this year by North Caro- 
lina to her officers and soldiers of the continental 
line. In favour of the earlier settlers on the 
Cumberland, an act was passed in 1782, by which 
rights of pre-emption were given to each head of 
a family and each single man who had been in 
the country since 1780 ; but the state reserved 
to herself the salt springs and licks and the 
section of land adjoining them. These lands, 



1782.] NASHVILLE NAMED. 185 

together with twentj-five thousand acres granted 
to General Nathaniel Greene for his eminent 
services in the South, were presently laid off by 
commissioners ; and the whole of the territory 
which was subsequently to become the State of 
Tennessee was formed into one district, which 
took the name of Morgan. Courts of law, esta- 
blished by the parent state, now began, for the 
first time, to exercise jurisdiction over the set- 
tlers on the Cumberland. 

In 1783 the county of Davidson was esta- 
blished in honour of the brave General Davidson, 
who fell at Cowan's ford while endeavouring to 
coA^er the retreat of Morgan, when pursued by 
Cornwallis after the battle of Cowpens. 

Robertson's settlement at the Bluff took the 
name of Nashville during the succeeding year, 
in commemoration of the patriotic services of 
Colonel Francis Nash, who at the outbreak of 
the Revolutionary war was a member of the 
Carolina legislature ; but subsequently accepted 
a commission in the continental line, and fell at 
the head of his brigade in the battle of German- 
town. 

The contest with Great Britain was virtually 
closed by the surrender of Cornwallis at York- 
town, but the proclamation of peace did not 
take place until the spring of this year. The 
frontiers, however, had already been benefited by 
the cessation of the war with England. Indian 



186 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1788. 

depredations became less frequent, and, at 
length, for several years, the inhabitants of 
middle Tennessee pursued their avocations with- 
out experiencing any very serious molestation. 
But as population increased, the angry feeling 
which arose with regard to the lands reserved 
to the Cherokees by the treaty at Hopewell, led 
to some minor assaults and reprisals, and finally 
threatened to result in a new border war. 

To provide for the defence of the frontier set- 
tlements, the legislature of North Carolina, during 
the session of 1785, authorized the enrolment 
of three hundred men, whose duty it was made 
to open a military road from the lower end of 
Clinch Mountain to Nashville. A part of this 
work being accomplished the following year, the 
-facilities it afforded to emigrants increased so 
largely the population of Davidson county as 
to call for its division, and the new county of 
Sumner was accordingly established. By the 
exertions of the militia of Davidson and Sumner 
counties, other roads were opened during the 
years 1787 and 1788. Emigrants flocking in by 
these routes rendered the division of Davidson 
county again necessary, and the county of Ten- 
nessee was accordingly established. 

At this time an incident occurred which exhi- 
bited, in a striking degree, the deep-rooted hos- 
tility of the inhabitants of the Nick-a-jack towns. 
Desirous of avoiding the long and difficult land 



1788.] MURDER OF COLOXEL BROWN. 187 

route through the wilderness, Colonel James 
Brown, a veteran officer of the continental line, 
of North Carolina, resolved to descend the Ten- 
nessee to the Ohio, and ascending the latter 
stream, reach Nashville by way of the Cumber- 
land. 

Constructing a boat on the Holston below 
Long Island, he embarked with his family, which 
consisted of his wife, five sons, and four daugh- 
ters. Two of his sons had reached the age of 
manhood. Accompanied also by five young men, 
and several negro servants, Colonel Brown com- 
menced his voyage on the 4th of May, and after 
floating down the river for five days, approached, 
on the morning of the 9th, the Chickamauga 
towns. At the Tuskigagee Island town several 
Indians came on board, who, after being treated 
kindly, returned to the shore and despatched a 
messenger to the lower towns, calling on the war- 
riors to intercept the Americans. Responding 
to this treacherous summons, twelve canoes, 
filled with savages whose arms were carefully 
secreted, ascended the river, and approaching 
the boat, threw its defenders ofi" their guard by 
a perfidious stratagem, and then, suddenly as- 
saulting them, killed Colonel Brown, his two 
eldest sons, and the young men by whom they 
were accompanied. Mrs. Brown, the younger 
children, and the negroes, were hurried oiF into 
captivity. Joseph Brown, after remaining one 



188 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1789. 

year a prisoner in the Nick-a-jack towns, bearing 
with such fortitude as a child might the most 
dreadful hardships, was surrendered to Governor 
Sevier, whose expedition from Frankland has 
already been mentioned. The other survivors 
of this terrible massacre were subsequently re- 
leased. 

The condition of the United States, at the 
period when peace was declared, was such as 
demanded a speedy relief from the pressure of a 
heavy and almost unsupportable debt, and from 
civil disturbances which the general government, 
as then constituted, were not able to control. 
To provide for the national debt, amounting to 
forty millions of dollars, it was proposed to vest 
in Congress the power to levy a tax of five per 
cent, on foreign goods ; but to this project New 
York and Rhode Island refused their assent. 
All other suggestions being received with similar 
tokens of popular disfavour, and the general go- 
vernment not being vested with power to act in 
the matter, the adoption of new articles of con- 
federation became necessary. Accordingly, dele- 
gates from all the states, Rhode Island excepted, 
met in convention at Philadelphia, and after a 
stormy and protracted session adopted the pre- 
sent constitution of the United States, which 
was ratified by North Carolina on the 13th of 
November, 1789. At the same session, conscious 
of the difificulty of adequately defending the re- 



1789.] TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 189 

mote settlements on the Cumberland, the legisla- 
ture ceded to the United States the territory 
which now forms the State of Tennessee, subject 
to the land warrants already issued, and on the 
condition " that no regulation made or to be 
made by Congress shall tend to the emancipa- 
tion of slaves." 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Territorial government formed — Blount appointed governor — 
Difficulty with Spain — Instructions to Mr. Jay — Indignation 
of the wrestern people — Instructions rescinded — Unpopu- 
larity of the Federal government — Intrigues of Spain — 
Activity of Governor Blount — Indian hostilities — Campaigns 
of Harman and St. Clair — Restlessness of the Cherokees — 
Treaty of Holston — Depredations by the Creeks — Knoxville 
founded — The lower Cherokees declare war — Attack on 
Buchanan's station — Capture of Captain Handly — Captain 
Beard surprises Hiwassa — Is court-martialed — Hostile move- 
ments of the Creeks and Cherokees — Massacre at Cavet's 
station — Sevier's expedition — Defeat of the Indians — The 
Nick-a-jack expedition. 

CoNaRESS having accepted the deed of cession 
from JSTorth Carolina, William Blount was ap- 
pointed governor of the territory south-west of 
the Ohio. " Of this new territory, coincident 
with the present State of Tennessee, the greater 
part, at this time, was in possession of the In- 
dians. To only two detached portions had the 



190 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1789. 

Indian title been extinguished ; one of four oi* 
five thousand square miles — the late State of 
Franklin — the north-east corner of the present 
State of Tennessee ; the other, an oblong tract 
of some two thousand square miles around the 
town of Nashville, on both sides of the Cumber- 
land River." The new governor, a native of 
North Carolina, and one of the delegates from 
that state to the convention, which framed the 
Federal constitution, had already recommended 
himself to the people over whom he was com- 
missioned to preside by his services at the treaty 
of Hopewell. 

In the meanwhile, however, a difficulty had 
arisen between Spain and the Federal govern- 
ment, in w^iich the western people were particu- 
larly interested. Spain, occupying Florida and 
Louisiana, claimed not only to extend her ter- 
ritory back to the head-waters of the Clinch 
River, a region already partially settled by 
Americans, but she also asserted her right to 
the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi River 
from its mouth to the thirty-first degree of lati- 
tude. Against any such restrictions, the inha- 
bitants of Virginia, Kentucky, and the south- 
west territory loudly protested. 

Negotiations were accordingly entered into 
with Spain, which resulted in the adoption of 
instructions, authorizing Mr. Jay, the American 
minister at Madrid, to consent to the introduction 



1789.] INDIGNATION OF THE PEOPLE. 191 

of an article into the treaty then pending, yield- 
ing to Spain for twenty years the full control of 
the navigation of the Mississippi River, from 
where it crossed the northern boundary of the 
Spanish American possessions to its confluence 
with the ocean. 

Against this unjust concession, Virginia 
strongly remonstrated. Supported by the other 
southern states, and by the clamorous out- 
cries of the people of the Ohio valley, the ob- 
noxious instructions were rescinded. All further 
negotiation proving ineffectual, Spain continued 
to tax heavily all American commodities which 
sought an outlet by way of the Mississippi. The 
hardy western men, who knew but little of com- 
mercial restrictions and liked them still less, 
after bearing for some time to have their rude 
flotillas boarded by revenue oflicers, and their 
agricultural products or peltry subjected to a 
heavy impost, resolved to open the navigation 
of the Mississippi in their own fearless way. 
Believing that the failure of the Federal govern- 
ment to obtain the right to an unrestricted navi- 
gation of the Mississippi evinced a disregard for 
the prosperity of the West, they entertained, at 
one period, a serious design of separating from 
the Atlantic States, and of organizing an inde- 
pendent expedition against the Spanish posts in 
Louisiana. But the esteem in which Governor 
Mere was personally held, and the efforts which 



192 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1789. 

he made through his emissaries to bring his 
government into favour "\yith the western people, 
averted, for a season, the impending storm. 

Conscious of her inability to control the navi- 
gation of the Mississippi, or to resist the advance 
of the American settlers, Spain, fearful of the 
growing power of the United States, determined 
to use every effort to separate the inhabitants 
west of the mountains from the Federal union, 
her final purpose being to draw them under her 
own jurisdiction. These intrigues were so far 
successful as to increase the disaffection against 
the Federal government ; but the louder the 
angry pioneers denounced the Union, the more 
averse they became to detach themselves from it. 

On the Hols ton and Cumberland there were 
other matters demanding the attention of the 
people. In addition to his executive office. 
Governor Blount had been appointed Indian su- 
perintendent for the southern tribes, a position 
demanding great firmness of character conjoined 
to a wise prudence and forbearance. 

The occasion, however, always found him equal 
to its demands ; and whether building forts along 
the frontiers, corresponding with the Spanish 
authorities, or treating with the Indians in coun- 
cil, his zeal and ability were alike conspicuous. 

Repeated efforts, on the part of commissioners 
appointed by the general government, having 
failed to put an end to Indian depredations, 



1790.] UNSUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGNS. -193 

especially throughout Kentucky and the North- 
West Territory, General Harmar was authorized 
to proceed with the militia of Pennsylvania and 
Virginia against the Miami towns. The force 
assembled at Fort Washington during the month 
of September, 1790 ; but their efforts to chastise 
the hostile tribes proved singularly disastrous. 
After suffering two defeats, by which the militia 
suffered great loss, and the regulars were 
almost annihilated, Harmar returned with his 
dispirited troops to the Ohio, and there disbanded 
them. 

The unfortunate result of this campaign influ- 
enced the general government to project an ex- 
pedition upon a more imposing scale ; the com- 
mand of which was given to General St. Clair. 
Already unpopular in the West, St. Clair found 
great difficulty in obtaining from Kentucky and 
Tennessee their respective, quotas of militia; the 
latter being desirous of fighting the Indians in 
their own way, and regarding the services of 
regulars as perfectly useless. In order to 
meet the requisition of the president. Governor 
Blount was compelled to resort to a draft. This 
mode of raising troops was indignantly resisted 
by men whose actions had hitherto been free 
and unshackled; and for a time considerable 
disaffection evinced itself throughout the pro- 
vince. Two hundred men were, however, sent 
under Major Rhea to Fort Washington, a por- 

17 



194 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1791. 

tion of wlioin shared in the terrible defeat of St. 
Clair on the 4th of November, 1791. 

At this time the Cherokees were growing very 
restless, but were at length induced, mainly by 
the influence of Kobertson, to meet Governor 
Blount in council on the banks of the Holston. 
The result of this meeting was a further cession 
of territory, in consideration of a large amount 
to be paid in goods, and an annual stij^end of 
one thousand dollars. 

But while the Cherokee delegates were formally 
placing their people under the protection of the 
United States, the Creeks were again committing 
serious depredations on the Cumberland. Some 
of the settlers, attributing these outrages to the 
Cherokees, were disposed to break the treaty 
just concluded, and commence a war of retalia- 
tion; but by the exertions of Blount and Ro- 
bertson, the malecontents were finally pacified. 
The dense population around White's station, 
the site of the late council, pointing it out as a 
favourable position for the seat of the territorial 
government, a town was presently laid ofi" at that 
point, which received the name of Knoxville, in 
honour of Major-General Knox, at that time 
secretary of war under President Washington. 

But however desirous of remaining at peace 
with the surrounding Indians, the intrigues of 
Spain and the shameful rout of St. Clair led 
the confederated warriors to indulge the hope 



1792.] CHEROKEES DECLARE WAR. 195 

that it might yet be possible to recover all the 
territory occupied by the Americans south of 
the Ohio River, and west of the Cumberland 
Mountains. It was not long before the Chero- 
kees began to exhibit the effects of the influence 
which had been brought to bear upon them. 
Murders and depredations recommenced ; and 
although McGillivray still expressed a desire to 
preserve pacific relations with the Americans, 
the conduct of his warriors gave just cause for 
alarm. Governor Blount exerted himself with 
great activity to avert the peril impending over 
the settlements. He held a council at Coyatee 
with the chiefs of the lower towns, and received 
from them assurances of peace. He crossed the 
mountain, and met the Chickasaw and Choctaw 
delegates in conference at Nashville. These also 
disclaimed all hostile feeling toward the Ame- 
ricans. But the Creeks and Cherokees were 
still active with the hatchet and the brand. The 
five lower Cherokee towns boldly declared war 
against the United States, and sent out armed 
bands of warriors to ravage the frontiers. In 
anticipation of this outbreak. Governor Blount 
had placed the frontier settlements of the Cum- 
berland under the protection of Major Sharpe. 
Scouts and reconnoitering parties were ordered 
to patrol from station to station, with instruc- 
tions to shoot down any Creeks or Cherokees 
who might be found lurking in the forest. 



196 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1792. 

Notwithstanding these precautions, Buchanan's 
station, four miles south of Nashville, was at- 
tacked on the night of the 30th of September, 
1792. But though the enemy numbered some 
seven hundred warriors, and the garrison con- 
sisted but of fifteen effective men, the strength 
of the works and the courage of the defenders 
sufficed to baffle the assault of the Indians, and 
compelled them to retreat with considerable loss. 

This daring incursion called out the troops 
under General Sevier, who, stationing his main 
body at the mouth of the Clinch Biver, sent off 
detachments to assist in garrisoning the chain 
of fortified stations which had been erected for 
the protection of Washington district. By this 
judicious measure, the inhabitants of East Ten- 
nessee were secured from any serious attack. 
But the activity of roving bands of warriors 
often baffled the utmost vigilance of the whites. 
On the Cumberland, a party of Creeks, Chero- 
kees, and Shawanese, attacked and put to flight 
a company of forty-two men under Captain 
Handley, taking the latter prisoner to Willstown, 
where the Indians debated for several days 
whether to put him to death, or suffer him to 
live. After forcing him to run the gauntlet, 
and practising many other barbarities, they 
finally concluded, at the intercession of two Bri- 
tish traders in the Spanish interest, to adopt the 
captive into their tribe. 



1793.] HIWASSA SURPRISED. 197 

Being liberally supplied with the necessary 
arms by the Spanish governor, John Watts, a 
half-breed chief of the lower Cherokees, had 
latterly increased the miKtary efficiency of his 
warriors by the formation of three companies of 
mounted men, and it soon became evident that 
all the southern tribes were preparing for a bold 
and bloody struggle. 

With the commencement of the year 1793, 
the attacks on the frontier stations, within which 
the more exposed settlers presently took refuge 
with their families, increased in number and 
daring. Kentucky also felt very severely the 
effects of Indian hostility ; and a party of volun- 
teers was organized under General Logan for 
the purpose of invading the lower Creek towns. 
But the expedition was deprecated by Governor 
Blount, who feared it would only exasperate the 
Indians to commit greater excesses. Though 
some of the Indians were bitterly hostile, others 
were known to be friendly ; and as but little dis- 
crimination is exercised usually in case of an 
attack upon towns so divided, it was more than 
probable that the innocent would have been con- 
founded with the guilty. Indeed, this soon 
showed itself to be the case. On the 13th of 
June, Captain Beard, with a company of mounted 
men, fell suddenly upon the friendly town of 
Hiwassa, wounded Hanging Maw the chief, killed 
his wife, Scantee a Chickasaw chief, and a num- 



198 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1794. 

ber of other Indians of consequence. The neigh- 
bouring warriors immediately rose in arms to 
the number of two hundred, repulsed Beard and 
his followers, and assumed an attitude of deter- 
mined hostility. When this occurrence took 
place, Governor Blount was absent. His secre- 
tary. General Smith, took such steps as resulted 
in bringing Beard to trial by a court-martial ; 
but, in the disturbed state of the frontier, and 
from the revengeful feelings by which the bor- 
derers were animated against the Indians, there 
was no possibility of bringing Beard to punish- 
ment. 

Indeed the hostility of the southern tribes was 
now becoming so manifest as to repress all sym- 
pathy for the outrage which had been committed. 
The territorial authorities, acting under the ad- 
vice of the general government, still endeavoured 
to restrain the people from pursuing retaliatory 
measures ; but they could not always be brought 
to withhold their hands while their friends were 
being murdered around them. 

On the 24th of September, one thousand Creek 
and Cherokee Indians, commanded by John 
Watts and Double Head, crossed the Tennessee 
with the intention of attacking Knoxville; but 
disputes between the leaders prevented the as- 
sault from being made under cover of the dark- 
ness. The customary firing of the morning gun 
by the garrison at Knoxville being mistaken by 



1794.] MASSACRE AT CAVET'S STATION. 199 

the Indians as an indication that their approach 
was discovered, they suddenly turned aside and 
wreaked their vengeance upon the garrison of a 
small block-house then within sight. This station, 
known as Cavet's, contained thirteen inmates, 
three only of whom were gun men ; but, notwith- 
standing the immense superiority of the besiegers, 
this slender garrison resolved to defend them- 
selves as well as they were able. Two of the 
assailants were presently killed, and several 
others being wounded, the Indians fell back 
beyond rifle-shot while they sent forward a 
messenger proposing conditions of surrender. 
The terms were accepted, but the savages proved 
treacherous, and barbarously murdered all their 
prisoners with the exception of Alexander Cavet, 
a youth whose life was saved by the interposition 
of Watts. 

This perfidious massacre, within eight miles 
of the seat of government, roused the entire 
population of the Holston. Governor Blount 
ordered General Sevier to take the field. Placing 
himself at the head of six hundred mounted men, 
the latter, after crossing the Tennessee and mak- 
ing some prisoners on the Oostanaula, marched 
to the Etowah, on the opposite bank of which, 
he discovered the Indians intrenched. Crossing 
the river by a ford above, the troops bore down 
upon the disconcerted enemy, and after an hour's 



200 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1794. 

hard fighting, succeeded in gaining a complete 
victory. 

Notwithstanding this reverse, war-parties still 
continued to harass the settlements to such a 
degree that, in spite of a direct prohibition from 
the general government, a number of the settlers 
on the Cumberland, aided by volunteers from 
Kentucky, led by the gallant Colonel Whitley, 
and, by a detachment of mounted men under 
Major Ore, who was chosen to command in chief, 
marched from Nashville against the Nick-a-jack 
towns. On the 13th of September, 1794, this 
party fell upon the savages by surprise, slew 
a large number of them, and made prisoners of 
nineteen women and children. On his return- 
march up the Tennessee, Ore was attacked at 
the narrows ; but he beat back his assailants, and 
pursued them to the Running Water town, which 
was captured and destroyed. In this important 
expedition, Andrew Jackson served as a volun- 
teer; the complete success which attended the 
assault on Nick-a-jack being attributed to his 
judicious suggestions. 



1794.] TERRITORIAL ASSEMBLY. 201 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Organization of a territorial assembly — Congress petitioned to 
declare war against the Creeks and Cherokees — Colleges es- 
tablished at Greenville and Knoxville — Washington college 
established — Convention at Knoxville and adoption of a 
Constitution for the State of Tennessee — Sevier elected Go- 
vernor — Blount and Coxe chosen Senators of the United 
States — Their election declared invalid — Subsequent action 
of the legislature of Tennessee — Andrew Jackson appointed 
a member of Congress — His personal appearance — Indian 
difficulties — Blount expelled the Senate — Appointment of 
Jackson to fill the vacancy — Reception of Blount in Ten- 
nessee — Chosen a senator o*f the State — His trial and ac- 
quittal — His death — Roane elected governor — Prosperity 
of Tennessee. 

In 1793, the number of free wliite male inha- 
bitants of the South- West Territory being found 
to exceed five thousand, Governor Blount, in ac- 
cordance with the provisions of the ordinance of 
1787, authorized the election of delegates to a 
territorial assembly, which met at Knoxville on 
the fourth Monday of February, 1794, for the 
purpose of choosing ten persons, from whom five 
were to be selected by Congress as a legislative 
council. A committee was also appointed to 
draw up an address to Congress, petitioning for 
a declaration of war against the Creeks and 
Cherokees. In this temperately worded and well 



202 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1794. 

written document it was stated that, since the 
treaty of Holston, two hundred citizens of the 
South- West Territory had fallen victims to Indian 
barbarity, and a number of others had been car- 
ried into captivity ; that property to the amount 
of one hundred thousand dollars had been stolen 
from them, independent of the slaves which frOm 
time to time had been carried off; that the 
Creeks and Cherokees, within the past two years, 
had twice invaded the territory in force, and that 
their ravages had been so universally felt that 
there was not a single member of the assembly 
but could "recount a dear wife or child, an aged 
parent or near relative massacred in their houses 
or fields by the hands of these blood-thirsty 
nations." 

Painfully impressed with the necessity of af- 
fording more efficient protection to a people who 
had already suffered but too severely, the con- 
gressional committee to whom the subject was 
referred, recommended "that the President 
should be authorized to call out an adequate mi- 
litary force to carry on offensive operations 
against any hostile tribe, and to establish such 
posts and defences as would be necessary for the 
permanent security of the frontier settlers." 

The first legislative council commissioned by 
the President of the United States, consisted of 
Griffith Rutherford, John Sevier, James Win- 
chester, Stockley Donaldson, and Parmenas Tay- 



1795.] COLLEGES ESTABLISHED. 203 

lor : these, with the governor and the members 
of the house of delegates, constituted the general 
assembly for the South-West Territory. 

One of the earliest measures adopted by the 
new assembly was to pass an act establishing a 
college at Greenville. At the same session an- 
other institution for educational purposes was 
provided for in the vicinity of Knoxville. The 
latter, which received the name of Blount Col- 
lege in honour of the governor, still exists under 
the title of the University of East Tennessee. 
The details of the tax-bill having been adjusted, 
though not without some discordant feeling be- 
tween the upper and lower branches of the legis- 
lature, and another memorial to Congress drawn 
up, asking protection from Indian inroads, the 
assembly finally requested the governor "to di- 
rect that, when the census is taken next June, 
the sense of the people may at the same time be 
inquired into how far it may be their wish for 
admission into the Union as a State." The bu- 
siness of the session being thus completed, the 
two houses were prorogued, at their own request, 
until the 1st of October, 1795. Governor Blount, 
however, thought fit to summon them to meet 
again at Knoxville on the 29th of June. The 
session only lasted thirteen days, but during this 
period an act was passed incorporating Washing- 
ton College, and provision made for calling a 
convention of delegates from the people to adopt 



204 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1796. 

a constitution for the new State, in the event 
of its being ascertained that the population of 
the territory exceeded sixty thousand. The 
census returns made in the autumn of the same 
year showing sixty-seven thousand free white in- 
habitants and ten thousand slaves, a convention 
was held at Knoxville on the 11th of January, 
1796, and a constitution adopted for the State 
of Tennessee. 

The territorial government being thus abro- 
gated, fresh writs of election were issued, which 
resulted in the choice of General John Sevier as 
governor of the new state. The delegates of 
the state legislature, who had been voted for at 
the same time, assembled at Knoxville on the 
28th of March, and presently elected ex-Governor 
Blount and William Cocke senators of the United 
States. To the reception of the latter, however. 
Congress raised objections. It was argued that 
the authority for taking the census, and for es- 
tablishing the new state, ought to have emanated 
from Congress. The report of the committee 
in favour of admitting the new state finally passed 
the house. The senate was less compliant. The 
new state was, however, after considerable oppo- 
sition, admitted into the Union; but when the 
senators elect presented their credentials and 
claimed their seats, it was decided that their 
election was invalid, because <' their credentials 



1798.] GENERAL JACKSON. 205 

"were of a date prior to the act admitting the 
state into the Union." 

It was not long before this objection was re- 
moved. The legislature of Tennessee, in obe- 
dience to a summons from Governor Sevier, met 
at Knoxville toward the close of July, and very 
early the following month re-elected their sena- 
tors to Congress, taking occasion, at the same 
time, to correct certain errors in the enactments 
of the previous session, by providing for the 
election of a single member to Congress instead 
of two, and for the choice of three presidential 
electors instead of four. When these amendments 
had been made, Andrew Jackson, a young lawyer 
of Davidson county, who had already distin- 
guished himself by his firmness in the discharge 
of his professional duties, and his courage in de- 
fending the frontiers from the predatory incur- 
sions of the savages, was chosen to represent the 
State of Tennessee in the Congress of the United 
States. 

At this period Jackson was about thirty years 
of age. He is remembered by Gallatin "as a 
tall, lank, uncouth-looking personage, with long 
locks of hair hanging over his face, and a cue 
down his back, tied in an eel skin : his dress sin- 
gular, his manners and deportment that of a 
rough backwoodsman. 

Re-elected governor in 1798, Sevier found him- 
self under the necessity of restraining the en- 

18 



206 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1798. 

croachments of the people upon the Indian lands. 
The Cherokees were especially desirous that the 
integrity of their boundaries should be respected, 
but they addressed their complaints to men ac- 
customed to perfect freedom of action, and but 
little likely to observe a courteous forbearance 
toward those from whom they had suffered so 
much in times past. The general government, 
however, evinced a proper regard for the rights 
of the Indians, by instructing Colonel Butler, 
who was in command of the United States troops 
on the frontiers of Tennessee, to order all the 
squatters upon Indian lands to recross the boun- 
dary. But imperative as this mandate was, it 
was found impossible to enforce it. The people 
to whom it was especially addressed indignantly 
refused to recede a single step ; and as the affair 
presently assumed a threatening aspect, the legis- 
lature amicably interposed. 

Commissioners having already been appointed 
by the United States to obtain a cession of the 
lands illegally occupied, Governor Sevier was 
authorized to apply to the President for a tem- 
porary suspension of the obnoxious order. The 
effect of this application is not recorded, but it 
may be presumed to have been favourable, as the 
trespassers were unmolested. 

In the early part of the following July a 
council was held at Tellico; but the chiefs ma- 
nifesting a reluctance to part with any portion 



1798.] BLOUNT EXPELLED THE SENATE. 20T 

of their territory, the negotiation was postponed 
until September, when Colonel Butler, on the 
part of the United States, assisted by Governor 
Sevier, who attended the conference to watch 
over the interests of Tennessee, succeeded in 
extinguishing the Cherokee claim to certain lands 
between the Tennessee and Clinch Rivers, and 
embracing those already settled upon. 

In the mean time Senator Blount had been 
expelled from the Senate of the United States, 
on a charge of conspiring to set on foot a mili- 
tary expedition against the Spanish territory in 
Florida and Louisiana. Andrew Jackson was 
elected to fill the vacancy. Blount returned to 
Tennessee before articles of impeachment were 
preferred against him. His arrest being ordered, 
the sergeant-at-arms repaired to Knoxville for 
the purpose of taking him prisoner to Philadel- 
phia ; but though this ofiicial was courteously 
received by Blount, and hospitably entertained 
by the citizens of Knoxville, so great was the 
popularity of the accused that the sergeant-at- 
arms, finding it impossible to obtain the co-opera- 
tion of the state authorities, was compelled to 
return home without executing his mission. As 
an evidence they regarded that project as 
praiseworthy which Congress had denounced as 
criminal, the inhabitants of Knox county pre- 
vailed upon General White to resign his seat in 
the senate of Tennessee in favour of Mr. Blount, 



208 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1800. 

■who, on taking his seat in that body at the en- 
suing session, was unanimouslj chosen its pre- 
siding officer. 

But while he was thus honoured at home the 
charges against him were brought to a trial in 
the Senate of the United States. On the 18th 
of December, Jared Ingersoll and A. J. Dallas 
appeared as his counsel and objected to the juris- 
diction of the court. After considerable discus- 
sion this objection was admitted to be valid, and 
on the 14th of January, 1799, the Vice-President 
declared the opinion of the court, dismissing the 
impeachment. 

It needed not this decision to increase the 
popularity which Blount enjoyed in Tennessee. 
Having won the good opinion of the inhabitants 
while governor of the territory, it was now 
thought they would manifest their regard for his 
previous services, and their emphatic disapproval 
of the indignity which had been put upon him, 
by choosing him governor of the state, but his 
death in the spring of 1800 put an end to the 
project. The following year Archibald Roane 
was elected chief magistrate, and was continued 
in that office until 1809, when he was succeeded 
by Willie Blount, a younger brother of the de- 
ceased senator. 

The perfect quiet and prosperity which pre- 
vailed for several years subsequent to the election 
of Roane, render the history of Tennessee during 



1800.] PROSPERITY OF THE STATE. 209 

that period barren of incidents sufficiently strik- 
ing to be worthy of record. Emigrants continued 
to pour into the territory in such numbers that 
the census of 1800 exhibited a population of one 
hundred and five thousand six hundred and 
eighty-two, of which thirteen thousand five hun- 
dred and eighty-four were slaves. 

The rich valleys of East Tennessee and the 
fertile plains of the Cumberland bountifully 
repaid the labours of the husbandman. The 
hardy and courageous race which had grown to 
manhood amid the horrors of an unceasing war- 
fare now exchanged the rifle for the plough, and 
found leisure almost for the first time to culti- 
vate the amenities of life. The earlier borderers 
were rough uneducated men, careless of danger 
from being inured to its constant presence, and 
enjoying a precarious existence with a keener 
zest from a knowledge of its uncertain tenure. 
But as the cluster of log cabins, originally built 
around or connected with the old picketed sta- 
tions, gave place to the neat and well-ordered 
village, as the village became a town of some 
consequence, as the mechanic arts began to 
flourish, and education extended itself to that 
class which had hitherto remained in ignorance, 
the nomadic habits of the people were gradually 
subdued, local attachments sprang up, domestic 
comforts increased, the manners and habits of 
the people experienced insensibly a change, and 

18* 



210 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1804. 



luxuries hitherto unattainable became requisites 
in every respectable household. 

But this happy improvement in the social con- 
dition of the people did not tend to lessen in 
any marked degree their original force of cha- 
racter ; for when, at a later day, a formidable 
Indian conspiracy threatened to devastate their 
fertile and well-cultivated fields, and a foreign 
invader disembarked an army of veteran soldiers 
upon the southern coast, they manifested the 
same martial ardour, power of endurance, elas- 
ticity of spirit and sturdy courage which so emi- 
nently distinguished their progenitors. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Aaron Burr — His duel with Hamilton — His journey to the 
West — Account of his projects against Spain and the United 
States — Co-operation of Blennerhasset — Burr publicly wel- 
comed at Nashville — Becomes the guest of Andrew Jackson 
— Descends the Mississippi — Returns to Philadelphia — In- 
trigues with Eaton, Truxton, and Decatur — 'Eaton's visit to 
Jefferson — Reappearance of Burr in the West — Military pre- 
parations in the Ohio valley — Burr's correspondence with 
Wilkinson — Denounced by the latter — Jackson's warning 
to the Governor of Louisiana — Jefferson's proclamation — 
Arrest of Burr in Kentucky — His acquittal — Suddenly ap- 
pears at Nashville — Frustration of his schemes — Burr de- 
scends the Cumberland — Encamps on the west bank of the 
Mississippi — His arrest, trial and acquittal — His subsequent 
fortunes. 

In 1804, having lost the confidence of the 
republican party of which he had been a distin- 



1805.] AARON BURR. 211 

guished leader, Aaron Burr, a native of New 
Jersey, a graduate of Princeton, a colonel in the 
War of Independence, an eminent lawyer, a pro- 
minent legislator of New York, a senator and 
subsequently a Vice-President of the United 
States, determined, in default of a regular nomi- 
nation, to run independently for the office of go- 
vernor of New York. Depraved in morals yet 
artful and dissembling, with brilliant talents, a 
fascinating address and polished manners, Burr 
still possessed many warm friends among the 
young and enthusiastic of his own party. He 
greatly depended for success, however, upon the 
votes of the Federalists, who had not considered 
it worth while to nominate a candidate. Failing 
to be elected, the disappointed office-seeker at- 
tributed his defeat to the influence of the great 
federal leader Alexander Hamilton, whom he de- 
liberately forced into a duel and killed. To 
avoid the first outbreak of public indignation, 
Burr fled to South Carolina, but presently re- 
turned to Washington and served out his unex- 
pired term as Vice-President. 

When Congress closed its session in March, 
1805, Burr, not venturing to return to New York, 
set out for the West. Pie had several ostensible 
objects in view, one of which was to ofi'er himself 
as a candidate for Congress from Tennessee, 
where no previous residence was required. Sug- 
gested by Matthew Lyon, a Kentucky congress- 



212 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1805. 

man, whose district adjoined Tennessee, the pro- 
position had been supported by a former com- 
panion-at-arms, General Wilkinson, who feared 
that if some legitimate field of action was not 
thrown open to him, he would betake himself to 
unlawful and desperate courses. 

Already, however, as subsequently appeared, 
Burr was contemplating far othei" than the inno- 
cent objects which he pretended to have in view. 

To a considerable portion of the southern and 
western people Spain had become particularly 
odious, partly on account of the difficulties which 
she had for so long continued to throw in the 
way of navigating the Mississippi, and partly 
from her intrigues with the southern Indians. 
Aware of this feeling, and ready himself for any 
enterprise, however repugnant to common justice, 
in which he might hope to better his present for- 
tunes. Burr meditated the organization of a mi- 
litary force in the "West, to descend the Mississippi 
and wrest from Spain a portion of her territory 
bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. As the execu- 
tion of this scheme could not but implicate the 
whole South-West, it was contemplated, in the 
expected event of a dismemberment of this por- 
tion of the country from the Union, to establish 
New Orleans as the capital of a new empire. 
Of this, either as dictator or president as cir- 
cumstances might determine, Burr was to be 
made the chief. 



1805.] BURR AT NASHVILLE.. 213 

With this scheme yet dimly shadowed out in 
his mind, Burr started on his voyage down the 
Ohio, during which he stopped for some time at 
the island of Blennerhasset, subsequently so 
called from the name of its wealthy proprietor 
and occupant, Herman Blennerhasset. This 
warm-hearted but impulsive and visionary Irish- 
man, the artful adventurer found little difficulty 
in winning over to his vaguely defined but ambi- 
tious purposes. 

At the Falls of the Ohio Burr met Lyon, by 
whom he had been preceded. From him he 
learned that his delay had proved fatal to his 
prospect of being elected from Tennessee. 
Nevertheless he accompanied Lyon to his home 
at Eddyville, on the Cumberland, whence he 
journeyed on horseback to Nashville. Here he 
was honoured by a public welcome, hearty and 
enthusiastic, and remained for several days under 
the hospitable roof of General Andrew Jackson. 
Of this gentleman, with whom he had become 
acquainted while both were in Congress, Burr at 
this time remarked, in a journal which he kept 
for the entertainment of his gifted but unfortu- 
nate daughter, that he "was once a lawyer, after- 
ward a judge, and now a planter, a man of in- 
telligence, and one of those prompt, frank, ardent 
souls whom he loved to meet." 

Returning down the Cumberland to Fort Mas- 
sac, Burr there met Wilkinson, through whose 



214 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1806. 

influence he was provided witli a well-manned 
officer's barge, in which he proceeded to New 
Orleans, where he arrived late in June. After 
a brief stay in the Orleans Territory, where he 
found the authorities highly unpopular, he re- 
ascended the Mississippi to Natchez, whence he 
travelled by land to Nashville. Again compli- 
mented with a public reception, he enjoyed the 
hospitalities of Jackson for another week, and 
then proceeded through Kentucky and the In- 
diana Territory to St. Louis. 

It was here that Wilkinson, according to his 
own story, first suspected Burr of meditating a 
desperate and illegal enterprise. Assuming an 
air of mystery, the artful plotter hinted at some 
glorious undertaking favoured by the general 
government. Yet that government he asserted 
was imbecile, and darkly spoke of the western 
people as being ripe for revolt. 

Returning to the east. Burr spent the ensuing 
winter, spring, and summer in Washington and 
Philadelphia. Mystery still attended all his 
proceedings. Nevertheless he began to talk 
more boldly, and to tamper with prominent 
public men at Washington, assuring some of them 
that Wilkinson was a party to his enterprise. 
But from such men as Eaton, Truxton, and De- 
catur he received no countenance ; though to the 
two latter he represented his project to be merely 
the establishment of an independent government 



1806.] burr's military preparations. 215 

in Mexico in the event of a war between Spain 
and the United States, which then seemed by no 
means improbable. Speaking more freely of his 
designs to Eaton, that officer visited the president 
and suggested Burr's appointment to a foreign 
mission, declaring it to be his belief that a revo- 
lution in the West would thus be prevented. 
Jefferson, however, expressing his firm confidence 
in the patriotism of the western people, demanded 
no further explanation, and Eaton did not feel 
authorized to give it unasked. 

Late in August, 1806, Burr again made his 
appearance in the West, and began to make active 
preparations to carry out his designs. In com- 
pany with Blennerhasset, he contracted for the 
building of fifteen boats on the Muskingum; 
authority was given to a mercantile house at 
Marietta to purchase provisions ; a kiln was 
erected on Blennerhasset's island to dry corn for 
shipment ; and numbers of the young and adven- 
turous were enlisted to participate in some splen- 
did enterprise, of the true nature of which they 
were told litile or nothing. 

In the mean time Wilkinson had taken com- 
mand at Natchitoches. While at this point there 
came to him a messenger bearing a letter in 
cipher from Burr. This letter, in disjointed 
phrases and a tone of mystery, announced that 
Burr had nearly completed his arrangements for 
some enterprise, which, judging from the tenor 



216 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1806. 

of the communication, Wilkinson was tolerably 
cognizant of, and in which he was expected to 
engage. How far the latter was implicated in 
the conspiracy it is diflScult to determine. Sub- 
sequently Burr charged him with having carried 
on a correspondence in regard to the expedition, 
and with being privy to his designs. But ad- 
mitting the fact of the correspondence, Wilkinson 
alleged that it was continued solely for the pur- 
pose of drawing Burr out. However this may 
have been, the course he now adopted left no 
room for suspicion. Gathering from Burr's 
messenger all the particulars he could of the 
projected enterprise, he sent the intelligence in 
a letter to the president ; despatched an order to 
the commanding officer at New Orleans to put 
the place in the best state of defence; warned 
Claiborne, the governor of the Louisiana Terri- 
tory, that his government was threatened by .a 
secret plot; made a requisition upon the acting 
governor of the Mississippi Territory for a re- 
inforcement of five hundred militia to proceed 
to New Orleans ; and, in short, did all that it was 
possible for activity and energy to accomplish. 

Meanwhile it had been widely rumoured that 
Wilkinson himself was concerned in the scheme 
of Burr — a fact that caused the former no little 
embarrassment, and for which as we have seen 
his conduct had afforded no slight ground. Writ- 
ing to Governor Claiborne, General Jackson 



1806.] ARREST OF BURR. 217 

warned that gentleman of an enterprise being 
on foot against his territory, and advised him to 
guard against internal as well as external dan- 
ger — as well against Wilkinson as against Burr. 
"For my own part, I hate the Dons," continued 
Jackson ; " I would delight to see Mexico reduced ; 
but I would die in the last ditch before I would 
see the Union disunited." 

At length, on the 29th November, finding it 
impossible any longer to doubt the dangerous and 
unlawful character of Burr's projected enter- 
prise. President Jefferson issued a proclamation 
calling upon all in authority to exert themselves 
for its suppression and for the arrest of the par- 
ties concerned in it. 

A few days previous to the issuing of this 
proclamation, however, Burr had been arrested 
at Lexington, upon the affidavit of the United 
States district-attorney for Kentucky. But 
having all the influence of the district-judge in 
his favour, the conspirator was acquitted, and 
his triumph was celebrated by a ball at Frankford. 

After the ball. Burr suddenly departed for 
Nashville. Scarcely had he gone when the Pre- 
sident's proclamation arrived. Its effect was 
completely destructive to Burr's plans. His 
boats on the Muskingum were seized; Blenner- 
hasset was compelled to fly down the river at the 
head of a few followers ; and every arrangement 
was made by the authorities of Kentucky and 

19 



218 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1806. 

Ohio to intercept all suspicious parties descend- 
ing the river. 

Meanwhile, having reached Nashville, Burr 
departed thence with a few followers and two 
boats down the Cumberland. On an island at 
the river's mouth he was joined by Blennerhasset. 
Finding that the whole number of those who still 
adhered to his desperate fortunes was less than 
two hundred, he endeavoured to draw recruits 
from the garrison of Fort Massac, in the neigh- 
bourhood of which he was encamped. His efforts 
proving signally unsuccessful. Burr once more 
took to his boats, and proceeded down the Mis- 
sissippi to Chickasaw Bluff, now Memphis, the 
only military station between Fort Massac and 
Natchez. Here the conspirator endeavoured 
again to raise recruits. The commanding officer 
of the fort so far yielded to his seductions as to 
promise to join him after he had visited his 
friends ; but neither the arts nor the tempting 
offers of Burr had any effect on the soldiers of 
the garrison. 

Resuming his voyage. Burr, before reaching 
New Orleans, upon which his sole hope now de- 
pended, became acquainted with the revelations 
made by Wilkinson. He saw at once that his 
whole project was baffled. Withdrawing from 
the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Territory, he 
formed an encampment on the west bank of the 
river, some thirty miles above Natchez. But he 



1807.] TRIAL OF BURR. 219 

was not secure even here. Influenced hj the 
president's proclamation, the governor of Mis- 
sissippi sent a detachment of militia to arrest 
him. Surrounded, and hopeless of escape, he was 
at length induced to yield. 

Thus once more a prisoner, Burr was taken to 
Washington, the capital of the Mississippi Ter- 
ritory, where he easily found sureties for his 
appearance at court. When the court met on 
the 5th of February, 1807, he appeared with his 
counsel, and demanded his release on the ground 
that the attorney-general had given it as an 
official opinion that his offences did not come 
within the jurisdiction of the Mississippi Terri- 
tory. His application for a discharge being 
overruled by the judges. Burr fled the same 
evening. A reward was immediately offered for 
his capture. For nearly two weeks nothing was 
heard of him ; but at length, on the 17th of Feb- 
ruary, he was arrested, in mean clothes, while 
travelling with a single companion through the 
westernmost settlements of what is now Alabama. 

Of Burr's subsequent history, of his trial at 
Richmond, of his acquittal on account of the in- 
formality of the evidence brought against him, 
of his wandering career in Europe and obscure 
and lonely life in New York, where he died at 
the advanced age of eighty years — it does not 
seem necessary to give any further account in a 
volume like the present. 



220 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1806. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Difficulties with Great Britain and France — Action of Congress 
— Increase of popular indignation against Great Britain — 
Congress declares war — Disastrous issue of the campaign 
at the north — Naval victories — Wilkinson calls on Tennes- 
see for volunteers — Prompt response — Reach Natchez under 
Jackson and Coffee — Ordered to be disbanded — Conduct of 
Jackson — Return to Nashville — Tecumseh — His attempt to 
form an Indian confederacy — Effect of his visit to the 
southern tribes — The Creeks become hostile — Massacre of 
Fort Mimms — Jackson reassembles the mihtia of Tennessee 
— Battle of Tallasehatche — Battle of Talladega — Successes 
of the Georgians and Mississippians. 

During the progress of the events narrated 
in the foregoing chapter, the relations of the 
United States with the governments of Great 
Britain and France had been growing less and 
less friendly. 

Engaged in war with each other, the two 
latter powers, in 1806, issued certain orders and 
decrees, by which American or other neutral 
vessels, having on board British or French mer- 
chandise, or trading to French or English ports, 
were rendered liable to seizure and confiscation 
by the naval forces of Great Britain or France. 
Upon the United States the effect of these or- 
ders and decrees was to check, and wellnigh to 



1812.] DECLARATION OF WAE. 221 

destroy a commerce hitherto thriving, and fast 
rising to the first importance. 

In the expectation of bringing both England 
and France to terms, by cutting off a consider- 
able source of their necessary supplies, Con- 
gress, in 1807, declared an embargo to prevent 
the sailing of American vessels to British or 
French ports. This measure, however, operat- 
ing seriously to the disadvantage of the com- 
mercial states, was, in 1809, abandoned, and 
an act passed in its stead, to prohibit all inter- 
course with Great Britain, France, and their de- 
pendencies. 

In the mean time other questions had arisen 
to complicate and increase the existing difiicul- 
ties between the United States and Great Britain. 
Among these were the rights of search and im- 
pressment, claimed and exercised by the latter 
government, and under color of which thousands 
of our seamen, native-born as w^ell as adopted 
citizens, on the pretence that they were British 
subjects, had been dragged from the protection 
of their own flag to the galling servitude of the 
English navy. 

The patience of the country having been ex- 
hausted, at length, in unavailing protests against 
these various aggressions upon our commerce 
and the rights of our seamen, it was determined, 
as a last resort, to try the effect of an appeal 
to arms. Accordingly, on the 18th of June, 

19* 



222 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1812. 

1812, Congress issued a formal declaration of 
war against Great Britain. As France had 
just signified her willingness to enter into an 
amicable arrangement of difficulties, it was not 
deemed advisable or necessary to include that 
government in the proclamation of hostilities. 

At the north, the early operations of the first 
campaign resulted in a series of disasters — the 
loss of Mackinaw, the abandonment of Chicago, 
the ignominious surrender of Hull at Detroit, 
and the capture of a thousand American troops 
at Queenstown Heights. On the ocean, how- 
ever, the navy of the United States proudly sus- 
tained the honour of our arms, and dissipated in 
a great degree the gloom occasioned by the un- 
toward course of events on land. 

The war had raged for some time along the 
Canadian frontier, when Wilkinson, in command 
at New Orleans, made a call upon the militia of 
Tennessee to march to the protection of that 
important post. In answer to this summons the 
gallant Tennesseeans, heedless of driving snow 
storms and the severity of an unprecedented 
winter, assembled at Nashville, on the 10th of 
December, to the number of fifteen hundred foot 
and four hundred horse — all volunteers. 

Headed by General Andrew Jackson, whose 
previous application for a regular commission 
had been rejected, the foot soldiers descended 
in boats to Natchez. Here a junction was 



1813.] VOLUNTEERS. - 223 

formed with the horse, who, under the lead of 
General Coffee, had marched four hundred and 
fifty miles through the Indian country. 

Remaining at Natchez during the winter, 
Jackson, early in the spring of 1813, received 
an order from the Secretary of War to disband 
his troops, and deliver over all the stores and 
other public property to Wilkinson. The reason 
alleged for this order was, that as the services 
of the militia were very expensive, it had been 
determined to dispense with them as far as pos- 
sible. Jackson, however, shrewdly suspected 
that the real motive for disbanding them at 
Natchez was to facilitate their enlistment into 
the army of Wilkinson, whose' recruiting officers 
had already appeared in the camp. Two hun- 
dred of the men were sick, and very few had 
means of their own to return home. Conse- 
quently, in the event of their discharge, many 
of them would be compelled by their necessities 
to enter the regular service, however unwilling 
ihej might otherwise be to do so. 

Deeming himself responsible to the brave 
men who had followed him so far, for their safe 
return to their homes and families, Jackson did 
not long hesitate as to what should be his pro- 
per course, under the circumstances. That 
course, though in direct opposition to the orders 
of the war department, he pursued with the 
fearless resolution which formed a prominent 



224 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1813. 

trait in his character. Driving away the re- 
cruiting officers of Wilkinson, in spite of warn- 
ings, threats, and efforts to embarrass his action, 
he procured wagons for his sick and disabled, 
and, heading his troops, marched them through 
the wilderness again to Nashville, the point 
where they had been originally mustered, and 
disbanded them. 

The patriotism of Jackson could not be doubt- 
ed; his services had already proved valuable 
and important. The motive for his conduct 
was one that did honour to his heart. The 
government did not deem it advisable, therefore, 
to take any notice of his disobedience of orders, 
but silently paid the expenses it had incurred. 

Previous to the declaration of hostilities, it 
had been urged as a cause for war on the part 
of the United States, that agents of the British 
government were actively engaged in inciting 
the animosity of the north-western Indian tribes 
agamst the American frontier settlements. 
However this may have been, no sooner was war 
proclaimed than the most of those tribes be- 
came the open allies of Great Britain. The 
moving spirit, by whose influence they had been 
in a great measure swayed to such a course, was 
Tecumseh, the celebrated chief of the Shaw- 
anese. 

From his boyhood this remarkable man had 
been an active and unrelenting foe of the 



1813.] TECUMSEH. 225 

Americans. Sagacious and observant, he early 
saw that their encroachments could be stayed 
only by the combination, in one friendly league, 
of all the various contending tribes of his race. 
To effect such a union became the grand aim 
of his existence. Of a dignified and command- 
ing appearance, an eloquent orator, a brave 
warrior, crafty, resolute, and capable of bearing 
every extreme of wilderness life, he possessed 
all the qualities held in esteem by the Indians. 
Thus endowed, and aided by the arts of his bro- 
ther, the Prophet, who claimed to hold a mys- 
terious intercourse with the Great Spirit, Te- 
cumseh had acquired an extraordinary influence 
over the various savage tribes of the north-west. 
How that influence was exerted on the breaking 
out of the war between England and America 
has already been noticed. 

After having held repeated conferences with 
the British at Detroit, Tecumseh, in the spring 
of 1812, attended by thirty mounted warriors, 
left the North- West Territory, and moving rapidly 
southward, penetrated the country as far down 
as Florida, where he succeeded in persuading the 
Seminoles to join his standard. Returning 
northward, some time during the autjamn he made 
his appearance among the Creeks of Alabama. 
Passing from town to town, he exerted all his 
fiery eloquence, creating wherever he went a 
fierce feeling of animosity to the Americans. 



226 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1813. 

He entreated his hearers to become again what 
they had formerly been — hunters and warriors, 
and the foes of the white man and his civiliza- 
tion. Their ancient allies, the English, he told 
them, had sent him from the great lakes to pro- 
cure their aid in expelling the Americans from 
every foot of Indian soil; and he assured them 
that the King of England would reward well 
every one that should take up arms in his cause. 

Departing in December for the North, Tecum- 
seh left the Creek nation in a state of fearful 
excitement. Two parties had arisen ; the one, 
comprising the wealthy and more intelligent 
chiefs, anxious to maintain peace ; the other, 
composed of the young and ardent clamo- 
rous for the immediate destruction of the 
American settlements. Stimulated continually 
by the prophet, whom Tecumseh had appointed 
to disseminate his doctrines, the war feeling con- 
tinued to grow more and more violent, until it 
broke out in murderous attacks, not upon whites 
only, but also upon such of the Creeks as desired 
to continue at pease with the United States. 

At length the surprise and capture of Eort 
Mimms by a band of the war faction, under the 
lead of Weatherford, a noted half-breed chief, 
brought affairs to a crisis. On this occasion 
nearly four hundred whites and friendly Creeks 
were either slain in the fight or massacred after 
the capture of the fort. 



1813.] BATTLE OF TALLASEIIATCHE. 227 

Reaching Nashville on the 25th September, 
1813, the tidings of this sanguinary affair creat- 
ed an intense excitement. Scarcely had Go- 
vernor Blount time to summon out the militia, 
before General Jackson, having assembled the 
volunteers of his late Natchez expedition, was 
on his march to the "Hickory Ground," the 
chief seat of the hostile Creeks, embracing 
the entire district between the Coosa and Talla- 
poosa Rivers. Crossing the Tennessee at Rit- 
ter's landing, Jackson with difficulty cut his way 
over the intervening ridges to Mill's Creek, 
where he remained for several days encamped, 
until his foragers had collected provisions, in 
want of which the army suffered a great deal. 

While waiting at this place the commander- 
in-chief despatched General Coffee, with two 
divisions of five hundred men each, to attack 
the town of Tallasehatche, some thirteen miles 
distant, where a considerable body of the enemy 
had assembled. Having forded the Coosa a 
short distance above the Ten Islands, Coffee di- 
rected one of his divisions to scour the neighbour- 
ing country, while he led the other in person 
against Tallasehatche. The sun was just rising 
on the 3d of November when the Tennesseeans, 
approaching the town on two sides, began the 
attack. Not wholly unprepared, the savages, 
headed by their prophets, with fierce yells and 
the beating of drums rushed furiously upon the 



228 HISTOHY OF TENNESSEE. [1813. 

advancing lines. A brief but sanguinary strug- 
gle put an end to the action, in which, scorning 
to beg for life, few Indians escaped destruction. 
Nearly two hundred w^arriors lay dead on the 
field, and eighty-four women and prisoners re- 
mained in the hands of the victorious Tennessee- 
ans, whose loss was but five killed and eighteen 
wounded. Recrossing the Coosa, Coffee reached 
the main camp late in the evening. 

Jackson now pushed forward over the moun- 
tains. Arriving at the Ten Islands of the Coosa, 
he there established a depot for provisions, pro- 
tected by strong pickets and block-houses, to 
which he gave the name of Fort Strother. 

While these events were transpiring, a small 
band of friendly Creeks, having taking refuge 
in a fort at the town of Talladega, had been 
closely besieged there by a large party of ^'Red 
Sticks," as the hostile Indians were called, 
in allusion to the colour of their war-clubs. 
Aware that Jackson was on the Coosa, the be- 
sieged for a time vainly endeavoured to convey 
to him some intelligence of their alarming situa- 
tion. Not a single warrior could leave the fort 
unseen. At length a crafty chief, clothing 
himself in the skin of a large hog, with the 
head and legs attached, crawled out of the fort 
one night on his hands and knees, and, thus dis- 
guised, grunting occasionally and rooting in the 
earth, managed to pass unsuspected through the 



1813.] BATTLE OF TALLADEGA. 229 

enemy's camps. Once beyond arrow-shot, he 
threw off his disguise, and sped like a deer to 
the head-quarters of Jackson, who immediately 
prepared to march to the relief of the fort. 

General White, with a detachment of General 
Cocke's East Tennesseeans, being some distance 
higher up the river, Jackson despatched a mes- 
senger to him with orders to hasten to Fort 
Strother, and protect it in his absence. Leav- 
ing a small guard to watch over the sick and 
wounded, he crossed the Coosa at midnight, 
and moved rapidly down the southern bank 
toward Talladega, within six miles of which 
the troops encamped, late in the evening of 
November the 8th. 

Scarcely had the tents been pitched, when 
Jackson received the irritating intelligence that 
White, instead of marching to Fort Strother, 
had complied with an order from Cocke to re- 
trace his steps to the mouth of the Chattanooga, 
and there join the main body of the Eastern 
volunteers. Fearing for the feeble garrison of 
Fort Strother, Jackson nevertheless determined, 
before hastening back to its protection, to make 
a desperate effort to relieve the beleaguered 
Creeks at Talladega. 

In the gray of the following morning the 
Tennesseeans moved to the attack of the Red 
Sticks, who, more than a thousand in number, 
were posted in a dense thicket, along the margin 



230 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1813. 

of a shallow rivulet, in the immediate vicinity 
of the fort. This position, as well as that of the 
beleaguered fort, Jackson's line, composed of 
twelve hundred infantry, and eight hundred 
horse, encompassed in an almost unbroken circle. 
About eight o'clock the American advance 
came in contact with the Indians. Though 
taken by complete surprise, the savages fought 
bravely, and with terrific yells and screams 
threw themselves against the fiery circle by 
which they were surrounded. At one point the 
militia momentarily gave way to the impetuosity 
of their charge. Being quickly rallied, however, 
the whole line rushed in upon the savages. The 
fight now became general. Flying, at length, 
the Ked Sticks were hotly pursued through the 
forests, and many shot down as they fled. Their 
total destruction seemed inevitable. But taking 
advantage of an unavoidable break in the line 
the main body, the survivors efi'ected their escape 
to the mountains, leaving more than three hun- 
dred of their number dead. 

By this victory, in which the Tennesseeans 
lost but fifteen killed and eighty-five wounded, 
one hundred and sixty friendly Creek warriors, 
with their wives and children, were saved from 
the slaughter that would have otherwise over- 
taken them. 

Having buried his dead, Jackson, whose pro- 
visions threatened to fail him, hastened back to 



1813.] INDIAN DEFEATS. 281 

Fort Strother. Here he was presently joined 
by Cocke, who, having formed a junction with 
White, had penetrated the Creek country, de- 
stroying three villages, killing sixty warriors, 
and taking two hundred and fifty prisoners, 
without the loss of a man. 

In the mean time two other columns of troops, 
one of the Georgia militia and friendly Creeks, 
the other of Mississippi volunteers, regulars, 
and Choctaws, had advanced from different 
points against the hostile district. Both gained 
important victories ; the Georgians, at Autosee, 
on the Tallapoosa; and the Mississippians at 
Holy Ground, above the mouth of the Catawba. 

These successes against the Creeks, and the 
recapture of Detroit, formed almost the only 
encouraging events in the second year of the 
war. 



282 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1814. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Jackson's difficulties at Fort Strother — Arrival of fresh troops 
— Jackson marches toward the centre of the Creek coun- 
try — Battle of Emuckfau — Repulse of the Red Sticks — Re- 
turn of the army toward Fort Strother — Battle of Enita- 
chopeo — Gallant conduct of Constantino Perkins and Cra- 
ven Jackson — Defeat of the Indians — Volunteers discharged 
— Jackson marches from Fort Strother with a new array — 
Battle of Cholocco Litahixee — Terrible slaughter of the Red 
Skins — Anecdote of Jackson — Submission of the Indians — 
Weatherford surrenders to Jackson — His speech — West Ten- 
nessee volunteers ordered home. 

Shortly after his return to Fort Strother 
Jackson became involved in difficulties of a 
most discouraging character. In consequence 
of the remissness of his contractors, his pro- 
visions, at no time plenty, now threatened to 
fail entirely. Already restive under short allow- 
ance, the troops soon found cause for open dis- 
satisfaction in a difference of opinion as to their 
legal period of service. Repeated mutinies 
broke out, and at length the whole expedition 
seemed on the point of breaking up in an armed 
struggle between Jackson and a few faithful 
followers on the one hand, and the discontented 
militia and volunteers on the other. Entreat- 
ing, commanding, and threatening, by turns, 



1814.] BATTLE OF EMUCKFAU. 2BB 

tlie general finally induced about a hundred 
men to adhere to him until the arrival of rein- 
forcements. The rest, claiming that the period 
of their service had expired, persisted in return- 
ing home. 

At this critical juncture, on the 13th of Janu- 
ary, 1814, eight hundred and fifty fresh volun- 
teers, sent forward by Governor Blount, made 
their appearance at Fort Strother. Immedi- 
ately advancing toward the heart of the Creek 
country, Jackson at Talladega received a fur- 
ther addition to his force of two hundred friendly 
Indians. 

In the afternoon of the 21st, the army fell in 
with numerous fresh trails. These indications 
of the proximity of a large body of the enemy 
being presently confirmed by the reports of his 
spies, Jackson, encamping on the high grounds 
of Emuckfau, made every preparation to meet a 
sudden attack. It was well he did so. The 
morning of the 22d was just beginning to dawn, 
when his left wing was startled by the furious 
assault of a swarm of savages. For half an 
hour the attack was maintained stubbornly, and 
as stubbornly resisted. Daylight at length dis- 
closing the position of their assailants, the Ten- 
nesseeans, charging in a body, drove them 
through the woods with great slaughter. 

Though thus repulsed the Red Sticks were 
not discouraged. In the course of the morning 

20* 



234 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

they boldly advanced a second time, and at- 
tacked the right of the encampment. Charged 
by Coffee's cavalry and a few friendly Creeks, 
they were at length forced from their position 
into a reedy swamp, where they lay concealed 
and unassailable. 

While Coffee was thus engaged, the main 
body of the enemy had attacked Jackson's left, 
pouring from behind logs, trees, and shrubbery, 
an irregular but deadly fire. This the Tennes- 
seeans, though mostly raw troops, sustained 
with the greatest firmness, until Jackson, who 
commanded in person at this point, finally or- 
dered a charge. Led by the impetuous Colonel 
Carroll, the whole line now advanced, driving 
the enemy before them with the bayonet. 

In the mean time the Red Sticks on the right, 
issuing from their swampy fastnesses, had turned 
on Coffee, who, though severely wounded, re- 
mained at the head of his troops, and kept the 
assailants at bay. Reinforced by Jackson, he 
ordered a charge. Once more the savages gave 
way, and the fight was ended. 

Though repulsed, the Creeks had displayed a 
ferocious courage that commanded the serious 
consideration of Jackson, whose force was 
weaker than he desired. His provisions were 
scarce, his wounded numerous, and the enemy 
would doubtless soon be reinforced. He deter- 



1814.] BATTLE OF ENITACHOPEO. 235 

mined, therefore, to return to Fort Strother 
with all possible despatch. 

At ten o'clock the next day, the army began 
its retrograde march, the wounded being borne 
on litters made of the hides of the slain horses. 
Enitachopeo creek was reached that evening. 
Knowing that the Red Sticks had been hanging 
on his rear during the preceding day's march, 
Jackson, on the morning of the 24th, fearing an 
ambuscade at the usual crossing-place, deter- 
mined to pass the creek some six hundred yards 
lower down. 

The wounded and the front guard had just 
crossed, and Jackson, upon the eastern bank, 
was superintending the operations of the army, 
when an alarm gun was heard, followed imme- 
diately by a fierce attack of the savages upon 
Captain Russell's company of spies, who gradu- 
ally retired, fighting gallantly, till they reached 
the rear-guard. Colonel Carroll, commanding 
the centre column, ordered his men to halt and 
form. Struck with sudden panic, the right and 
left columns fled without firing a gun, with their 
ofiicers foremost in the flight. Colonel Stump, 
who came plunging down the bank, near the ex- 
asperated commander-in-chief, narrowly escaped 
being cut down by his sword. Sharing the 
panic of the two others, the centre column also 
plunged into the creek, leaving Carroll, sup- 
ported by Captain Quarle's company, Russell's 



236 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

spies, and the artillery under Lieutenant Arm- 
strong — in all scarcely a hundred men — to check 
the enemy's advance. 

While the infantry and a portion of the artil- 
lery, mounting to the top of the bank, there 
held the Indians at bay, Armstrong, with a few 
assistants, succeeded in dragging his solitary 
six-pounder from the bed of the creek to an 
eminence that commanded the approach to the 
ford. In the hurry of unlimbering the gun, the 
rammer and picker had been left on the car- 
riage. With wonderful presence of mind, and 
while Indian bullets rattled like hail around 
them, Constantino Perkins and Craven Jackson, 
two of the gunners, supplied the deficiency; 
Perkins, by removing his bayonet, and ramming 
the charges hotne with his musket, and Jackson 
by using his ramrod as a pricker, and priming 
with a musket cartridge. Thus loading their 
piece, this gallant little band, pouring grape 
among the savages, kept them in check until 
Jackson and his staff were enabled, by great 
exertions, to rally the flying troops, and recross 
the creek. At the same time Gordon's spies, 
in front when the alarm was given, having made 
a circuit through the forest, fell upon the left 
flank of the Indians ; who, finding that the 
whole army was now moving against them, 
threw away their packs, blankets, and whatever 



1814] MOVEMENTS AGAINST THE INDIANS. 237 

seemed likely to retard their flight, and fled 
precipitately from the field. 

The loss of the Tennesseeans in the battles 
of Emuckfau and Enitachopeo, was seventy 
killed and seventy wounded. Of Indians, one 
hundred and eighty-nine dead bodies were 
counted on the two fields. How many of those 
who escaped were wounded there is no means 
of knowing. 

Continuing their march without further in- 
terruption to Fort Strother, Jackson's volun- 
teers became entitled to their discharge, and 
were sent home. 

New calls for militia had meanwhile been 
made. They came in slowly ; but, through the 
exertion of Governor Blount, Jackson was ena- 
bled to leave Fort Strother, on the 15th of 
March, at the head of thirty-five hundred men, 
including, besides Tennesseeans, a regiment of 
regulars and many friendly Indians. Pushing 
with this force fifty miles down the Coosa, he 
built and garrisoned Fort Williams, on that 
river. He then again directed his march 
through the mountain wilderness for the great 
bend of the Tallapoosa, some seventy miles 
above the present town of Dadeville, in Ala- 
bama. 

At this point — Cholocco Litahixee, or the 
Great Horse-shoe Bend — the main body of the 
Red Sticks, some twelve hundred strong, had 



238 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

assembled to make a desperate stand. Sur- 
rounded almost entirely by the river, whose 
windings here assume the figure of an immense 
horse-shoe, enclosing a peninsula of about a hun- 
dred acres, the position of the Indians was ac- 
cessible only by a narrow neck of land, across 
which they had thrown up a strong breastwork 
of huge logs, so arranged as to expose assailants 
to a cross fire. The houses of the village stood 
upon some low grounds at the extremity of the 
peninsula, where hundreds of canoes were tied 
to the river bank. 

Determined to carry the breastwork, Jack- 
son, early in the morning of the 27th of March, 
despatched General Coffee with the mounted 
men and friendly Indians to ford the river some 
two miles below, and line the opposite bank of 
the bend, so as to prevent the enemy from 
escaping in their canoes. Signalized by Coffee 
that he had taken his position, Jackson marched 
the remainder of his force toward the breast- 
work, planted his cannon on an eminence about 
eighty yards from its nearest face, and at ten 
o'clock opened a brisk but ineffectual fire. 

Meanwhile some of Coffee's Cherokees, swim- 
ming the river, took possession of the canoes, 
upon which the Red Sticks had relied for escape, 
in the event of their being defeated. Employ- 
ing the means thus offered, Coffee immediately 
sent a considerable force across the river. 



1814.] BxiTTLE OF CHOLOCCO LITAHIXEE. 239 

Headed by Colonel Morgan and Captain Rus- 
sell, this adventurous detachment, not without 
loss, reached the Indian village, and in a few 
moments wrapped it in flames. 

This new and unexpected attack, throwing the 
Red Sticks into partial confusion, afforded Jack- 
son an opportunity of which he was not slow to 
take advantage. He immediately gave the or- 
der, impatiently waited for, to storm the breast- 
work. Rushing forward with loud shouts, the 
men fought their way through a deadly fire to 
the ramparts. Here an obstinate and sangui- 
nary conflict ensued. At length Major Mont- 
gomery, of the regulars, mounting the logs, 
called upon his men to follow; but he had 
scarcely spoken when a rifle ball pierced his 
brain, and he fell lifeless. Undaunted by the 
fall of their leader, the troops, imitating his ex- 
ample, scaled the breastwork and, after a des- 
perate hand to hand struggle, finally forced their 
way within the enemy's line. 

Coffee's troops, hurrying from the destruction 
of the village, now attacked the unfortunate 
savages in the rear. Thus hotly assailed, they 
fought with the courage of desperation, none 
asking for quarter, but each man selling his life 
as dearly as possible. After a lengthened 
struggle some fled to the river and, attempting 
to swim it, met death from the unerring rifles 
of the Tennesseeans. Many betook themselves 



240 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

to the western angle of the breastwork, where, 
screened by heaps of timber and'treetops, they 
maintained a spirited fire upon Jackson's line. 
Desiring to save the lives of those brave men, 
the commander-in-chief despatched a messenger 
to them, telling them of the uselessness of fur- 
ther resistance, and assuring them of his cle- 
mency provided they would surrender. Shout- 
ing defiance, they replied by firing upon the 
messenger, who received a severe wound in the 
breast. An attempt was then made to dislodge 
them with the artillery. This failing, fire was 
applied to their covert, and as they fled they 
were shot down without mercy. Night only put 
an end to this scene of blood, during which five 
hundred and fifty-seven Indians left their bodies 
on the field of battle. Besides these, many were 
slain while crossing the river; and it is conjee 
tured that not more than two hundred survived, 
and under cover of the darkness of night made 
good their escape. Two hundred and fifty were 
taken prisoners ; all men and women except 
two or three. The loss of Jackson, when com- 
pared with that of the enemy, was small. In- 
cluding the friendly Indians it was but fifty-five 
killed and one hundred and forty-six wounded. 

After the battle an interesting incident oc- 
curred. Moved by the wail of an Indian infant 
found upon the field, the mother of which had 
perished during the confusion of the battle, 



1814.] SURRENDER OF WEATHERFORD. 241 

Jackson endeavoured to persuade some nursing 
women among the captives to suckle it. " Its 
mother is dead," was the stoical answer ; 'Uet 
the child die too." "Without children himself, 
the general then undertook the duties of a nurse, 
feeding the forsaken infant with some brown 
sugar, which formed part of his private stores. 
Subsequently carried home bj Jackson, the poor 
orphan thus provided for grew to be an intelli- 
gent lad, learned the trade of a saddler, and 
coming to manhood was comfortably established 
at Nashville. 

The battle of the Horse-shoe brought the war 
nearly to an end. Entirely broken in spirit, 
the Red Sticks made but few efforts to rally, 
and presently began to come into Fort Jackson, 
built since the fight, four miles above the conflu- 
ence of the Coosa and Tallapoosa. 

Among the most conspicuous of the chiefs 
who thus submitted themselves and their people 
to the terms of peace offered by Jackson, was 
Weatherford, the half-breed, who, leading the 
Indians at Fort Mimms, had opened the war. 
Riding up to the general's marquee, Weather- 
ford was met by Jackson, who passionately in- 
quired,— 

<' How dare you, sir, to ride up to my tent 
after having murdered the women and children 
at Fort Mimms ?" 

«' General Jackson" — so he replied — ''I am 

21 



242 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

not afraid of you. I fear no man, for I am a 
Creek warrior. I have nothing to ask for my- 
self. Kill me if you desire. I come to beg you 
to send for the women and children of the war 
party, who are now starving in the woods. 
Their fields and their cribs have been destroyed 
by your people, who have driven them to the 
woods without an ear of corn. I exerted myself 
in vain to prevent the massacre of women and 
children at Fort Mimms. I fought there. I 
fought the army of Georgia. I did you all the 
injury I could. I am now done fighting. My 
warriors are all killed, and I can fight no longer. 
I look back with sorrow that I have brought 
destruction upon my nation. Send for the 
women and children. They never did you any 
harm. But kill me if the white people want it 
done." 

When this speech was concluded, the throng 
that had gathered around the marquee began 
to cry out, "Kill him! kill him! kill him!" 
Commanding silence, "Any man," exclaimed 
Jackson, "who would kill so brave a man as 
this, would rob the dead !" The men murmured, 
but Weatherford's life was spared, and he took 
no further part in the war except to influence 
his warriors to surrender. 

By the establishment of Fort Jackson a line 
of posts was now formed from Tennessee and 
from Georgia to the Alabama river. The leni- 



1814.] JACKSON A MAJOR-GENERAL. 243 

ent policy of the general having induced most 
of the Red Sticks to submit, it was not deemed 
necessary to maintain a large army longer in 
the field. Garrisoning the different posts with 
the East Tennesseeans of General Dougherty, 
General Pinckney, the senior officer of the 
southern army, on the 21st of April, ordered 
the West Tennessee troops to march home. 
Two hours after the order was issued they were 
in motion. Reaching Camp Blount, near Fay- 
etteville, they were there discharged by Jack- 
son, who, before parting with them, spoke grate- 
fully of their gallant conduct and of the patience 
with which they had borne the privations and 
hardships of war. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Jackson appointed a major-general — He negotiates a treaty 
with the Creeks — The British at Pensacola — Jackson's cor- 
respondence "with the Spanish governor — His project for the 
reduction of Pensacola — He calls upon Tennessee for volun- 
teers — FortBowyer attacked — Repulse of the British — They 
take refuge at Pensacola — Jackson determines to attack 
that place — Arrival of volunteers from Tennessee — Jackson 
marches upon Pensacola — Unsuccessful negotiations — Ame- 
ricans attack the town — Submission of the Spanish governor 
— Escape of the British — Indians driven off — Jackson re- 
surrenders Pensacola — He proceeds to New Orleans. 

Having been elevated to the rank of major- 
general in the United States army, Jackson once 



244 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 



more left the retirement of the Hermitage, and 
early in July proceeded to the fort called by his 
name, where dm-ing the following month he suc- 
cessftilly negotiated a treaty with the conquered 
Creeks. Through this treaty an assurance of 
safety was given to the frontiers of Tennessee, 
by the cession to the United States of all the 
Indian territory lying along the Tennessee River. 
In the mean time, a considerable number of the 
Red Sticks refusing to submit to the terms of- 
fered them, had fled to the Floridas, which at 
this period belonged to Spain. Already pre- 
paring for an energetic attack upon the south- 
west when the northern campaign should close, 
the British, landing a large quantity of military 
stores at the mouth of the Apalachicola River, 
began to reassemble and arm the fugitive Creeks. 
Of this fact, and of the succour and protection 
afforded the savages by the Spanish authorities 
at Pensacola, rumours reached Jackson while he 
was still employed in negotiating the treaty of 
which mention has already been made. He im- 
mediately despatched a letter to Manriquez, the 
governor of Pensacola, remonstrating against the 
conduct of the Spanish authorities toward the 
United States, with which power Spain professed 
to be at peace. In reply, Manriquez denied that 
the fugitive Creeks were then with him. If they 
were, he continued, hospitality would forbid him 
to surrender them, or to refuse them assistance 



1814.] LETTER TO SPANISH GOVERNOE. 245 

in their distress. Admitting that the English 
still possessed and used certain posts in the 
Floridas, he attempted to show that they did so 
hy right of a treaty which existed between Great 
Britain and the Indians previous to the conquest 
of the country by Spain. 

Not at all pleased with the reply to his first 
note, Jackson despatched to Manriquez a second, 
sharp and energetic in its tone and quite charac- 
teristic. "I have the honor," so he wrote, "of 
being intrusted with the command of this district. 
Charged with its protection and the safety of its 
citizens, I feel my ability to discharge the task, 
and trust your excellency will always find me 
ready and willing to go forward in the perform- 
ance of that duty whenever circumstances shall 

render it necessary Your excellency 

has been candid enough to admit your having 
supplied the Indians with arms. In addition to 
this, I have learned that a British flag has been 
seen flying on one of your forts. All this is 
done while you are pretending to be neutral. 
You cannot be surprised then, but will provide 
a fort in your town for my soldiers and Indians, 
should I take it into my head to pay you a visit." 

In this last sentence, Jackson hinted at what 
he had more than once previously urged upon the 
federal authorities, the necessity of accomplish- 
ing the reduction of Pensacola. Returning 
from that place, the messenger who had carried 

21^- 



246 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 



the general's second letter to Manriquez, reported 
that he had there seen from one hundred and 
fifty to two hundred soldiers, and about five hun- 
dred Indian warriors, under the drill of British 
officers, armed with new muskets, and dressed in 
the English uniform. 

This information Jackson immediately de- 
spatched to the government, and again urged his 
favourite project — the reduction of Pensacola. 
Orders to take possession of that post had already 
been sent to him, but he did not receive them till 
six months afterward. 

At length, having finished his business with the 
Indians at Fort Jackson, the commander-in-chief, 
on the 11th of August, departed for Mobile, 
which it was expected that the British would 
soon attack. Here he found himself at the head 
of three thin regiments of regulars. In view 
of the preparations which the enemy were mak- 
ing at Pensacola, he presently hurried oif de- 
spatches to Tennessee, with pressing calls for 
volunteers. These despatches had scarcely 
reached Nashville, when, on the 15th of Sep- 
tember, Fort Boyer was attacked by the British. 
This post, the possession of which would 
greatly facilitate the proposed operations of the 
enemy against New Orleans, was built on the 
eastern point of Mobile Bay, thirty miles distant 
from the town, and commanding the approach to 
it. Garrisoned by one hundred and thirty re- 



1814.] EXPEDITION AGAINST PENSACOLA. 247 

gulars, the fort made so gallant a resistance that 
the British were at length forced to retire, with 
the loss of a sloop-of-war blown up, and of two 
hundred and thirty-two men killed and wounded. 

After this repulse the enemy took refuge at 
Pensacola. Finding all his previous conjectures 
thus confirmed, Jackson, though without orders, 
determined to assume the responsibility and take 
possession of that place. Such a course he be- 
lieved could not afford even a pretext for rupture 
between Spain and the United States. If the 
latter country through her agents gave assistance 
to our enemy, she deserved herself to be treated 
as a foe. On the other hand, if Spain, having 
but a small force in the Floridas, could not main- 
tain her neutrality by expelling thence the troops 
of Great Britain, it would certainly be no just 
ground of complaint if the United States were 
to bring in an army to assist her. At any rate, 
so Jackson argued, should complaint be made, 
his government having never given him authority 
to do as he proposed might with propriety dis- 
avow the act, and by exposing himself to punish- 
ment sufficiently atone for whatever outrage he 
might thus inflict upon Spain. Accordingly he 
resolved to march upon Pensacola as soon as a 
sufficient force could be raised. 

In the mean time, Jackson's call upon Ten- 
nessee had been responded to with spirit and 
alacrity. Only nineteen days after it had reached 



248 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

the state capital, Coffee was at Fayetteville with 
two thousand able-bodied troops, well equipped, 
and eager to advance. Joined during his rapid 
march by eight hundred additional volunteers, 
Coffee presently encamped on the western bank 
of the Tombigbee, a short distance above its con- 
fluence with the Alabama. Here on the 26th 
of October he was met by Jackson, who pro- 
ceeded expeditiously to make the necessary ar- 
rangements for an immediate march. 

Crossing the Tombigbee, Coffee's brigade 
pressed forward to Eort Montgomery. After a 
few days of repose at this place, Jackson took 
up his line of march for Pensacola, at the head 
of three thousand Tennesseeans, regulars, Mis- 
sissippi mounted men, and friendly Indians. On 
the 6th of November he encamped within two 
miles of the Spanish town. 

Before proceeding farther, Jackson deter- 
mined to try once more the effect of peaceable 
negotiation, and endeavour to ascertain how far 
Manriquez felt disposed to preserve a good un- 
derstanding between the two governments. Ac- 
cordingly Major Pierre was despatched with a 
flag to make known the objects at which the 
Americans aimed, and to require that the dif- 
ferent forts, Barrancas, St. Rose, and St. Michael, 
should be immediately surrendered, to be garri- 
soned by United States troops until Spain, by 
furnishing a sufficient force, might be able to 



1814.] EXPEDITION AGAINST PENSACOLA. 249 

protect the province and preserve lier neutrality 
unimpaired. 

Fired upon from Fort St. Michael's, Pierre was 
compelled to return without having accomplished 
his mission. Notwithstanding this outrage, Jack- 
son still desired a peaceable understanding, and 
by a prisoner sent a letter to the Spanish go- 
vernor, demanding an explanation for the insult 
that had been offered to his flag. In his reply, 
Manriquez disclaimed any participation in the 
affair, and expressed his perfect willingness to 
receive any overtures the American general 
might be pleased to make. 

Confirmed in his opinion that what had been 
done was chargeable upon the English rather 
than upon the Spanish authorities, Jackson ad- 
mitted himself satisfied with this explanation by 
immediately despatching Pierre a second time to 
the governor, with a message similar to the one 
previously attempted to be sent. '«! come not," 
he wrote, "as the enemy of Spain, to make 
war, but to ask for peace; to demand security 
for my country, and that respect to which she is 
entitled and must receive. My force is sufficient, 
and my determination taken to prevent a future 
repetition of the injuries she has received. I 
demand, therefore, the possession of the Barran- 
cas, and other fortifications, with all their muni- 
tions of war. If delivered peaceably, the whole 
will be receipted for, and become the subject of 



^50 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

future arrangements by our respective govern- 
ments ; while the property, laws, and religion of 
your citizens shall be respected. But if taken 
by an appeal to arms, let the blood of your sub- 
jects be upon your own head. One hour is given 
you for deliberation. At the expiration of that 
hour your determination must be had." 

Receiving the message at midnight, Manriquez 
immediately summoned a council, which decided 
that the American general's demands could not 
be acceded to. Assuring the governor that re- 
course would certainly be had to arms, Pierre 
returned to Jackson, who at once put his troops 
in motion toward the town. 

Across the only street by which Jackson could 
enter Pensacola, without passing under the guns 
of Fort St. Michael, the Spaniards had planted 
several pieces of artillery. To remove this ob- 
struction. Captain Laval, of the third regiment, 
was ordered forward with one hundred picked 
men. Regardless of a heavy cross-fire, poured 
in upon him from houses and gardens, Laval, 
early on the morning of November the 7th, ad- 
vanced with a daring rapidity that carried him 
almost into the midst of the Spaniards before they 
had time to discharge their pieces. Though at this 
moment deprived of their leader, who fell with his 
leg shattered by a grape-shot, Laval's little band 
reaching the battery, carried it at the bayonet's 
point, and drove the Spaniards from their guns. 



1814.] SURRENDER OF PENSACOLA. 251 

In this brief but spirited affair seven Ameri- 
cans were slain and eleven wounded. The loss 
of the Spaniards was four killed, six wounded, 
and several taken captive. 

Forming in three columns, the main body of 
Jackson's troops now advanced along the beach 
eastward of the town. Here they were met by 
the terrified governor, bearing a flag of truce, 
and expressing his readiness to agree to the 
American commander's proposals. Ordering a 
cessation of hostilities, Jackson hurried to the 
Intendant's house, and there completed an ar- 
rangement by which the town-arsenals and muni- 
tions of war were to be immediately surrendered. 

Leaving Major Pierre with eight hundred men 
to take possession of Fort St. Michael, Jackson 
withdrew the remainder of his troops to their 
camp outside the town. An attempt was made 
by the British, whose shipping still remained at 
anchor in the harbour, to intercept his return 
march. Aided by their boats, they were enabled 
to open a brisk fire upon the Americans as they 
passed along the principal streets, but Lieutenant 
Call hastening to the beach with a single piece 
of artillery, soon obliged them to disperse. 

At six o'clock in the evening the commandant 
of Fort St. Michael declared that he could not 
evacuate before morning. Word was at once sent 
him that if the fort were not instantly delivered 
up it would be stormed and the garrison put to 



252 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

t"he sword. The American troops were inime- 
diately admitted. 

Early in the following morning preparations 
were made to take possession of Fort Barrancas, 
seven miles from Pensacola, and which, command- 
ing the entrance to the harbour, if once in the 
hands of Jackson, would enable him to cut off 
the retreat of the British shipping — an object he 
earnestly desired to accomplish. The order for 
its delivery had been signed by Manriquez and 
the line of march toward it already taken up, 
when a tremendous explosion, followed by two 
others in quick succession, was heard in that di- 
rection. Intelligence presently arrived that the 
fort had been blown up by the British, whose 
fleet, sailing by the yet smoking ruins, made 
good their escape to sea. 

Having thus driven oif the British, and com- 
pelled the fugitive Red Sticks to flee for shelter 
to the banks of the Apalachicola, Jackson, on the 
9th of November, gave up Pensacola to the Spa- 
nish authorities, and marched his forces to Fort 
Montgomery. From this post, Coffee with his 
mounted Tennesseeans was ordered to proceed 
to the Mississippi, and to encamp on the borders 
of that stream as near New Orleans as a supply 
of forao-e could be obtained. Convinced that the 
British were preparing a formidable expedition 
against that city, Jackson himself hastened by 
way of Mobile to take command there in person. 



1814.] CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS. 253 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Jackson calls again for volunteers — Patriotism of the Tennes- 
seeans — Disaffection at New Orleans — British forces under 
Packenham threaten that city — Difficulty with the Louisiana 
militia — Martial law proclaimed — Vanguard of the enemy 
encamp on the Mississippi^ — Night attack by Jackson and 
Coffee — Dilatory movements of the British — Destruction of 
the schooner Caroline — First repulse of the enemy — Jack- 
son's difficulty with the Louisiana legislature — Battle of the 
8th of January — Packenham slain — Final repulse of the 
British. 

In consequence of communications from the 
Governor of Louisiana, Jackson seeing at once 
that for the defence of New Orleans he would 
have to rely mainly upon exterior resources, had 
already pressed the executives of the neighbour- 
ing states to hasten forward bodies of militia 
to his support. 

Enthusiastic and active, Governor Blount had 
exerted all his authority and influence in com- 
pliance with Jackson's solicitations. By the 19th 
of November twenty-five hundred brave Ten- 
nesseeans, headed by the energetic Carroll, were 
assembled at Nashville. Eight days afterward 
they embarked on the Cumberland for New 
Orleans. Fortunately the river, usually low at 
this period of the year, was unexpectedly swol- 

22 



254' HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

len by heavy rains, and the boats descended 
without obstruction to the Ohio. 

Reaching New Orleans on the 1st of Decem- 
ber, Jackson found that city illy prepared to 
meet an attack. The anxiously-expected troops 
from Tennessee and Kentucky had not as yet 
been heard from. A few regulars and the militia 
and volunteers of the city and its vicinity formed 
almost the sole force upon which Jackson could 
depend in the event of the enemy's sudden ap- 
pearance. Already in session several weeks, the 
legislature of Louisiana had as yet resolved upon 
nothing. Despondency and discontent, and what 
was more alarming, disaffection were manifested 
on all sides. The arrival of Jackson, however, 
and the activity and energy which he immediately 
displayed, gave a more encouraging aspect to 
affairs and inspired even the desponding with 
hope. 

On the 12th of December intelligence arrived 
at New Orleans of the appearance off the en- 
trance to Lake Borgne of the long-looked-for 
English fleet, having on board, exclusive of sailors 
and marines, between ten and twelve thousand 
veteran troops, commanded by Sir Edward Pack- 
enham, a distinguished general of Wellington's 
late Peninsula army. Two days afterward, the 
American flotilla of gunboats, despatched to re- 
connoitre the enemy, having been becalmed on 
Lake Borgne, was there attacked by a greatly 



1814.] EFFORTS OF JACKSON. 255 

superior number of British barges, and after a 
hard struggle compelled to surrender. 

Seriously concerned at this disaster, Jackson 
on the 15th hurried off expresses to obtain tid- 
ings, if possible, of Coffee's brigade and of the 
militia expected from Tennessee and Kentucky. 
<'You must not sleep," so he wrote to Coffee, 
" until you arrive within striking distance. Your 
accustomed activity is looked for. Innumerable 
defiles present themselves where your services 
and riflemen will be all-important. An oppor- 
tunity is at hand to reap for yourself and brigade 
the approbation of your country." 

On the 16th, an aid-de-camp arrived with in- 
telligence from Carroll, who wrote that the state 
of the weather, and high and contrary winds, 
greatly retarded his progress. To remedy this, 
the only steamboat then on the river having just 
arrived from Pittsburg, was sent to bring him 
down. 

After encountering numerous hardships from 
heavy rains and a scarcity of supplies. Coffee 
reached Sandy Creek, a short distance above 
Baton Rouge, where he received Jackson's orders 
on the evening of the 17th of December. Leav- 
ing behind him the sick, three hundred in number, 
he set off at once with twelve hundred and fifty 
men. Pushing forward himself with eight hun- 
dred of the best mounted, he accomplished the 
distance of one hundred and twenty miles in two 



256 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1814. 

days, and on the third encamped within four 
miles of the city. 

In the mean time, Jackson had been actively 
engaged in preparations to prevent surprise, and 
to meet the enemy promptly at every accessible 
point. In this, however, he encountered serious 
difficulties. His first efi'ort to draw out the mi- 
litia, among whom were many disaffected persons, 
met with resistance on their part, and that re- 
sistance was encouraged by the legislature then 
in session, who declared his requisition to be 
illegal, unnecessary, and oppressive. Thus sup- 
ported, a considerable portion of the militia clung 
to the position they had taken, and resolutely 
refused to answer any call upon their services, 
except on conditions to which Jackson's unyield- 
ing disposition would not suffer him to consent. 

In this emergency the commander-in-chief 
urged upon the legislature the necessity of sus- 
pending the writ of habeas corpus. Wearied at 
length with the dilatory, and perhaps justifiable 
cautiousness of the legislature in acting upon this 
subject, on the 20th of December he took the 
responsibility of closing their deliberations by 
proclaiming the city and environs of New Orleans 
under martial law. This rigid policy which, as 
will presently be seen, involved its author in con- 
siderable difficulty, was adopted "under a solemn 
conviction that the country committed to his care 
could by such a measure alone be saved from 



1814.] NIGHT ATTACK. 257 

utter ruin. By it he intended to supersede such 
civil powers as in their operation interfered with 
those he was obliged to exercise. He thought 
that, at such a moment, constitutional forms 
should be suspended for the preservation of con- 
stitutional rights; and that there could be no 
question, whether it were better to depart for a 
moment from the enjoyment of our dearest pri- 
vileges, or to have them wrested from us for 
ever." 

Meanwhile, having been joined by the Ten- 
nesseeans under Carroll, and a body of Mississippi 
dragoons, Jackson, on the 21st, found himself at 
the head of five thousand men, less than one-fifth 
of whom were regulars. With the exception of 
the Kentucky troops all the forces expected had 
arrived. 

On the 22d, the British vanguard, composed 
of three thousand men, led by General Keene, 
having passed, under the guidance of some 
Italian fishermen, from the head of Lake Borgne 
through the Bayou Bienvenu to within a short 
distance of the Mississippi, encamped on the left 
bank of that river, fifteen miles below New 
Orleans. 

Concentrating his forces, Jackson determined 
to attack the enemy that evening. Marching 
from the city at the head of the regulars, Coff'ee's 
brigade, the city militia, and Hind's Mississippi 
dragoons, he arrived within view of the British 

22* 



258 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

camp a little before dark. Jackson's plans were 
speedily arranged. The schooner Caroline, drop- 
ping down the river, was to give the signal of 
attack, by opening a fire upon the British left, 
while Coffee's brigade, taking a circuitous route, 
was ordered to advance against and turn their 
right. The main body, under Jackson in per- 
son, pushed forward to assail them in front. 

It was dark night, when the Caroline, floating 
quietly down the stream, anchored abreast of the 
enemy's watch-fires, and directed by their light 
poured a heavy and destructive fire upon the 
most crowded portion of the encampment. Hav- 
ing had no suspicions of the real character of the 
Caroline, the British were thrown into momentary 
confusion by this unexpected attack. Recover- 
ing, however, they extinguished their watch-fires, 
and retired a short distance into the open field; 
meanwhile answering the cannonade of the ves- 
sel by harmless volleys of musketry and dis- 
charges of Congreve rockets. 

When the Caroline commenced firing, Coffee 
had reached a point which he believed to be in 
front of the centre of the enemy's right wing. 
Extending his own line parallel with the river, 
he marched directly toward the camp. He had 
scarcely advanced a hundred yards, when not 
knowing that the British had been forced back 
from the river, he was startled by encountering 
a sudden and heavy discharge of musketry. 



1814.] NIGHT ATTACK. 259 

The moon had now risen, but shone dimly- 
through the gathering fog. Though fired upon, 
Coffee's riflemen could not mark their assailants 
with that distinctness which was necessary to the 
fatality of their aim, and consequently to the 
success of their movement. Ordered to advance, 
however, they moved forward bravely, utterly 
regardless of what might be the strength of the 
force opposed to them, and gaining a nearer po- 
sition opened upon the enemy, who speedily gave 
way, retreated, rallied again, and were a second 
time forced back by the deadly fire of the Ten- 
nesseeans. 

In the mean time, after a desperate struggle 
and a great deal of confusion on both sides, 
Jackson had broken the enemy's centre. Coffee 
again charging on their right, drove his oppo- 
nents once more before him. Thus successfully 
assailed at three points, the British abandoning 
their original position at length stood firm in a 
very strong one, between an old levee, which 
sheltered them from the Caroline, and a new one, 
raised within, which covered them from the rifles 
of the Tennesseeans. 

Finding that this position could not be carried, 
and that the enemy, reinforced during the contest, 
now greatly outnumbered him, Jackson remained 
inactive on the battle-field till day-break, and 
then withdrew to a strong stand-point, two miles 



260 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

closer to the city, where the Mississippi and the 
swamp approached nearest each other. 

The loss of the British in this night attack 
was estimated at four hundred killed, wounded, 
and missing. That of the Americans was but 
twenty-four killed, one hundred and fifteen 
wounded, and seventy-four made prisoners. 

Had the enemy advanced at once upon Jack- 
son, the ultimate fortune of their expedition 
would probably have been different. But, as the 
American commander had foreseen, his spirited 
night assault threw them into alarm and rendered 
their subsequent operations cautious and slow. 
Ignorant of his strength, which the American pri- 
soners exaggerated greatly, they waited to bring 
up reinforcements and artillery. Profiting by 
their delay, Jackson proceeded with almost in- 
credible activity and labour to fortify his natu- 
rally strong position. Having deepened and 
widened the shallow ditch which stretched across 
his front from the Mississippi to the swamp, he 
formed a rampart along the line with bales of 
cotton, and covered it with earth. 

On the 27th, a British battery, planted on the 
levee near the late battle-field, succeeded in set- 
ting fire to and destroying the Caroline. Gather- 
ing confidence from this slight success, the enemy, 
led by Packenham in person, the next day left 
their encampment in force, drove in Jackson's 
outposts, and approaching within half a mile of 



1814.] FIRST REPULSE. 261 

his lines, began a furious attack upon them with 
artillery, bombs, and Congreve rockets. Checked 
in their advance by Jackson's five pieces and by 
a raking fire from the Louisiana sloop- of-war, 
the British, after maintaining a continued can- 
nonade of seven hours duration, finally withdrew 
with the loss of more than a hundred in killed 
and wounded. 

During this attack a detachment of the enemy, 
moving against the extreme left of the American 
line, were there met by Cofi"ee and his riflemen. 
Though greatly outnumbering the Tennesseeans, 
the British were driven back. Perceiving from 
this demonstration, however, that his left might 
be turned, Jackson immediately proceeded to 
strengthen his defences in that quarter by ex- 
tending his rampart of cotton bales, logs, and 
earth into the swamp, an arduous task, which 
was intrusted to Coffee and his brigade. When 
completed, the new breastwork was left to be de- 
fended by the Tennesseeans, who hourly expect- 
ing an attack, maintained their post night and 
day, resting and sleeping on logs and brush, by 
which they were elevated above the waters that 
surrounded them. 

Matters now approaching a crisis, Jackson 
began to be disturbed by apprehensions of in- 
ternal treachery. Waited upon by a special com- 
mittee of the Louisiana legislature, he was asked 
what his course would be if he were driven from 



.262 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1814. 

his position. ''If," replied the general, "if I 
thought the hair of mj head could divine what 
I should do, I would cut it off. Go back with 
this answer. Say to your honourable body, that 
if disaster does overtake me, and I am driven 
from my line to the city, they may expect to 
have a very warm session." After the war, in 
answer to a question on this point, "I should 
have retreated to the city," such were Jackson's 
words, ''fired it, and fought the enemy amidst 
the surrounding flames. There were with me 
men of wealth, owners of considerable property, 
who would have been among the foremost to 
apply the torch to their own dwellings." 

A rumour flying about the city that Jackson 
had determined upon this course, the speaker of 
the Louisiana senate began to make inquiries of 
the general's aid, Major Butler, as to the founda- 
tion for it. From this and other more significant 
circumstances, it was conjectured that the legis- 
lature contemplated saving the city by ofi'ering 
to capitulate. Apprizing Governor Claiborne of 
his suspicions, Jackson directed him to keep a 
close watch upon the legislature, and should a 
motion be made to capitulate, to place a guard 
at the door and confine the members to the hall. 
Misinterpreting the general's orders, Claiborne, 
without waiting for the necessary contingency, 
placed an armed force at the door of the capital, 
and prevented the legislature from convening. 



1815.] BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 263 

Instead of shutting the members in doorSj as 
Jackson had desired, he turned them out. 

At length, after a severe conflict on the 1st, in 
which Packenham had a second time failed in an 
attempt to batter down the American breastwork, 
the morning of the 8th of January, 1815, found 
both armies prepared for what proved to be a 
final struggle. 

On the right of Jackson's line, which was 
strengthened by an advanced redoubt, were posted 
the regulars and Louisiana militia. Coffee's rifle- 
men still held their position in the swamp on the 
left, while Carroll's Tennesseeans and the re- 
cently arrived Kentucky militia formed the cen- 
tre. Along the line were judiciously disposed 
eight separate batteries, mounting in all twelve 
guns. On the right bank of the river, General 
Morgan, with fifteen hundred men, was stationed 
behind an intrenchment, defended by several 
brass twelves and by a battery of twenty-four 
pounders, under the direction of Commodore 
Patterson. As many of the Kentuckians and 
others were unprovided with arms, they were set 
to work at throwing up a second line of intrench- 
ments, as a place of rally should the breastwork 
be carried. 

A detachment having crossed the river to as- 
sail Morgan, the main body of the British, at the 
firing of two signal rockets, moved forward with 
steady rapidity to storm Jackson's position. 



264 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1815. 

Through the dense fog that hung heavily over the 
plain, the regulated tramp of the middle column, 
led by Packenham in person, was heard plainly 
long before it appeared. Guided solely by the 
sound, the American batteries opened a destruc- 
tive fire upon the approaching assailants ; who, 
nevertheless, closing their ranks as fast as they 
were thinned, pressed forward with a steady and 
unshaken front. 

It was not until the fog lifting disclosed them 
fully to view, and the ramparts before them 
blazed with a sheet of deadly flame from the rifles 
of the Tennesseeans, that these brave men began 
to show signs of wavering. Still they moved 
forward, only to fall by hundreds. A few gain- 
ing the ditch in front of the American works, 
remained there during the rest of the battle, and 
were afterward made prisoners. Their comrades, 
unable to endure the storm of balls and bullets 
that incessantly assailed them, fell back in dis- 
order, meeting death even in retreat. Hastening 
to restore order, Packenham fell dead in the 
arms of his aid-de-camp. Generals Gibbs and 
Keene were next borne from the plain, the one 
mortally and the other severely wounded. 

At this moment. General Lambert, the next in 
command, coming up with the reserve, met the 
retreating column and succeeded in rallying it 
for a second efi'ort. Again the enemy moved 
forward only to encounter once more that sue- 



1815.] BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 265 

cession of deadly volleys. A few reached the 
ditch, many fell riddled with rifle-bullets, the 
rest fled in confusion. A third time Lambert 
and his ofiicers endeavoured to win victory and 
save their reputations. But threats and en- 
treaties were equally vain. Not a man could be 
found willing to advance again upon what seemed 
to be certain and unavailing death. 

Meanwhile the. British column operating upon 
the American right, under the command of Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Rennie, had met with temporary 
success. The redoubt, as yet unfinished, was 
carried, but with a fearful loss of life. Having 
crossed the ditch and mounted the wall, waving 
his sword and calling upon his men to follow, 
Rennie fell dead. Gaining the redoubt, the vic- 
tors found themselves unable to advance farther, 
and exposed to a murderous fire from the breast- 
work, they with difficulty maintained the position 
they had purchased so expensively. Finally, 
the centre column being repulsed, they efi"ected 
a disorderly retreat. 

On the left, where Coff"ee's brigade awaited their 
assault, the British signally failed. The swamp 
and the stern resistance of the Tennesseeans 
were obstacles they were unable to overcome, 
or even to attack with spirit ; and when the two 
other columns fell back they also withdrew with 
less confusion and with less loss, but not with 
less complete defeat than their companions. 

23 



266 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1815. 

In the mean time, the British detachment 
against Morgan on the opposite bank had met 
with entire success. But the failure of Packen- 
ham rendered that success of little value. Re- 
garding the lost position as an important one, 
however, Jackson contemplated regaining it by 
force; but having alarmed Lambert bj an inge- 
nious stratagem, that general withdrew the vic- 
torious detachment, and hastened to abandon the 
whole enterprise. On the day after the battle, 
he commenced with great secrecy the preparation 
for re-embarking his troops, first falling back to 
his original landing-place at the head of Lake 
Borgne, from which point the army finally retired 
on the 27th. 

"With regard to the British loss on this fatal 
day there are many conflicting accounts. Their 
killed, wounded, and prisoners, according to the 
report of the American inspector-general, did 
not amount to less than twenty-five hundred. 
Lambert's account represented it at two thousand 
and seventy. The force of the enemy actually 
engaged on both banks of the river has been va- 
riously stated at from seven to nine thousand. 
That of the Americans numbered in all between 
four and five thousand, a considerable portion of 
whom were destitute of arms, and consequently 
unable to engage in the fight. Of the whole 
number, but seventy-one were killed and wounded 
on both sides of the river. 



1815.] JACKSON AT NEW ORLEANS. 267 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Return of Jackson to New Orleans — Opposition of the Citi- 
zens to the continuance of Martial Law — Imprisonment of a 
member of the legislature by order of Jackson — Arrest of 
Judge Hall — Intelligence of peace — Return of Hall to New 
Orleans — Arrest and trial of Jackson for contempt of court 
— A fine imposed — Demonstration of popular sympathy — 
Dismissal of the Tennessee volunteers — Honours awarded 
Jackson by Congress — McMimm elected governor — Diffi- 
culties with the Cherokees — With the Florida Indians — 
Jackson ordered to take the field — Tallahassee towns 
burned — Seizure of the Spanish fort at St. Mark's — Skir- 
mishes with the Indians — Execution of Arbuthnol and Ara- 
brister — Jackson takes possession of Pensacola — Protest of 
the Spanish minister — Execution of Arbuthnot and Ambris- 
ter discussed by Congress — Jackson sustained by the House 
of Representatives — Florida ceded to the United States. 

Waiting until the greater part of the British 
had taken to their ships, Jackson returned with 
the main body of his troops to New Orleans. 
His entrance into the city was a scene of tri- 
umph and rejoicing. 

Doubtful as to whether the enemy had wholly 
abandoned their enterprise, Jackson deemed it 
necessary to keep New Orleans a little longer 
under the , restrictions of martial law. Now 
that danger seemed to have passed away, this 
state of things was not borne with very patriotic 
fortitude. Much discontent began to show itself. 



268 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1815. 

An anonymous article on the subject, full of 
bitter complaints, and calculated to excite a bad 
feeling among the troops, having appeared in 
one of the city papers, Jackson compelled the 
publisher to disclose the name of its author. 
The latter, proving to be a member of the legis- 
lature, was forthwith committed to prison, with 
the prospect of being tried for his life by a mili- 
tary court. A writ of habeas corpus was im- 
mediately issued on his behalf by Judge Hall, 
of the United States District Court. But, de- 
termined to settle at once the question of autho- 
rity which he believed the proceeding was in- 
tended to test, Jackson, instead of obeying the 
writ, arrested Hall and sent him out of the city. 

Two days afterward, on the 13th of March, 
official intelligence arrived of the ratification of 
a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the 
United States. The aspect of affairs now 
changed. Martial law ceasing. Hall, returning 
to the city, resumed the exercise of his judicial 
office, and caused process to be served on Jack- 
son to appear and show cause why an attach- 
ment should not issue against him for con- 
tempt of court in resisting the writ of habeas 
corpus. 

Answering this summons, the general ap- 
peared at court on the 30th of March, and 
through his counsel offered a written statement 
in defence of what he had done. After con- 



1815.] TRIAL OF JACKSON. 269 

siderable discussion the court permitted certain 
portions of this statement to be read. That 
part of it, however, in which Jackson gave his 
reasons for declaring martial law. Hall refused 
to hear, and ordered the issue of an attachment, 
returnable on the following day. 

At the time appointed, assuming the dress of 
a civilian, Jackson entered the crowded court- 
room, and had nearly reached the bar when, 
being recognised, the whole audience saluted 
him with a loud and enthusiastic cheer. Re- 
storing silence by a deprecating move of his 
hand, he sat down, whereupon Hall, rising, and 
intimating his fear of a popular outbreak, was 
about to order an adjournment. 

<' There is no danger," interrupted Jackson. 
" There shall be none. The same arm that pro- 
tected this city from outrage will shield this 
court or perish in the eifort." 

Thus reassured. Hall proceeded to business, 
and called upon the general to answer certain 
interrogatories, by which his guilt or innocence 
was to be determined. 

"You would not hear my defence" — such 
were Jackson's words — " although you were ad- 
vised that it contained nothing improper. Un- 
der these circumstances I appear before you to 
receive the sentence of the court, having nothing 
further to oifer. Your honour will not under- 
stand me as intending any disrespect to this 

23* 



270 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1815. ^ 

court, but as no opportunity lias been afforded 
me of explaining the reasons and motives by 
which I was influenced, so is it expected that 
censure or reproof will constitute no part of 
that sentence which you may imagine it your 
duty to pronounce." • 

This plain speaking brought the affair to a 
speedy termination. Giving his decision, Hall 
imposed a fine of one thousand dollars, for which 
amount the general's check was immediately 
tendered to the clerk. Again cheering, the 
excited throng in the court-room now; hurried 
Jackson out of doors, forced him into a carriage 
from which the horses had been taken, and 
dragged him in tumultuous triumph to his hotel. 
Fearing, from this perhaps excusable but still 
dangerous demonstration of popular sympathy, 
that his over-earnest friends might commit some 
unpardonable excess in his name, Jackson, in a 
brief address proclaiming the " important truth 
that submission to the civil authority is the first 
duty of a citizen," was finally enabled to allay 
a feverish excitement that seemed to threaten 
personal injury to the judge whose decision had 
just been made. 

Giving a more legitimate, or at least less ex- 
travagant turn to the expression of their regard, 
Jackson's friends in New Orleans immediately 
made up the amount of his fine by subscription, 
and placed it in bank to his account. The 



1816.] m'mimm governor. 271 

general would not accept it, however, and pro- 
posed that the sum should be disposed of for 
the benefit of those whose relatives had fallen in 
the late battle. As a matter of course his sug- 
gestion was promptly acceded to. 

In the mean time the Tennessee volunteers, 
having been dismissed, had marched home by 
land, arriving at Nashville after a long and 
tedious journey, in which they suffered much 
more by sickness than they had done from the 
enemy. They were soon followed by Jackson, 
who met from his townsmen a reception of the 
most gratifying character. By Congress he was 
rewarded for his gallant service with a vote of 
thanks, a gold medal commemorative of the bat- 
tle of the eighth of January, and by being 
retained as one of the two major-generals of the 
United States army under the new peace esta- 
blishment. 

At the election of this year — a year ever to 
be remembered with pride by the citizens of 
Tennessee — Willie Blount, of whose active and 
energetic patriotism remark has been more than 
once made in the course of this narrative, was 
succeeded, as chief executive of the state, by 
Joseph M'Mimm. 

In 1816 considerable dissatisfaction was cre- 
ated throughout the state on account of a new 
treaty arranged by the general government with 
the Cherokees, whose claim was recognised to 



272 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1817. 

the country on the southern course of the Ten- 
nessee River, which had been recently yielded 
up by the conquered Creeks. In consequence 
of the murmurs thus excited fresh negotiations 
were presently entered into, and the Cherokees 
induced to limit themselves, on the south side of 
the Tennessee, to the parallel of Huntsville, in 
Alabama. Almost the whole of the present 
State of Alabama, and a large tract in southern 
Tennessee, were thus laid open to settlement. 

In 1817, repeated depredations by the Indians 
of Florida having rendered a resort to arms un- 
avoidable, Jackson, who still commanded in the 
south, was ordered to take the field, with au- 
thority to call for troops from Tennessee. 

Immediately issuing a summons for two thou- 
sand Tennessee volunteers, Jackson hastened to 
Hartford, on the Ockmulgee river, in Georgia, 
there to organize the militia of that state. At 
the head of these he presently marched toward 
Fort Scott, built near the confluence of the 
Flint and Chattahooche Rivers, and where about 
a thousand regulars were assembled. The coun- 
try being new and barren, it was only by his 
indefatigable personal exertions that the general 
kept the troops supplied with provisions. Reach- 
ing Fort Scott, he found the Tennesseeans not 
arrived, and being still without adequate means 
of subsistence, hurried forward to meet the pro- 
vision boats expected from New Orleans. As a 



1818.] INDIAN WAR. 273 

depot for these supplies he built Fort Gadsden, 
not far from the head of Apalachicola Bay. 

Having been at length furnished with provi- 
sions, Jackson, on the 26th of March, 1818, 
advanced against the Seminole towns in the 
neighbourhood of what is now Tallahassee. 
During the march his force was augmented by a 
party of Creek warriors, and a portion of the 
Tennesseeans whose advance had been retarded 
by the difficulty of procuring supplies. 

Having easily defeated the Iniiians, whose 
villages were burned and their fields destroj^ed, 
Jackson proceeded to St. Mark's, the only Spa- 
nish fort in this section of Florida, and demanded 
its surrender on the ground that the Seminoles 
had there received aid and comfort. The Spa- 
nish commandant hesitating, an American de- 
tachment entered the fort and took forcible but 
bloodless possession. 

Though still scantily supplied, the general 
now marched from St. Mark's, through a region 
almost entirely under water, to attack an Indian 
town near the mouth of the Surranee. He had 
expected to surprise the enemy, but found them 
prepared for resistance — their w^omen and chil- 
dren having been sent away — under the lead of 
one Ambrister, a British trader. It was through 
this man's partner, a Scotsman named Arbuth- 
not,whom Jackson had found at St. Mark's, that 
the Indians received notice of the approach of 



274 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1818. 

the Americans. But though thus forewarned, 
the savages were unable to cope with the supe- 
rior force opposed to them ; and, after two con- 
siderable skirmishes, they fled from their village, 
which was burned, leaving their white leader a 
prisoner. 

His men being worn down with fatigue and 
beginning to suffer from a scarcity of provisions, 
Jackson thought it inadvisable to march against 
the more southern Seminole towns, and presently 
set out on his return to St. Mark's. Reaching 
that plaice, he put Arbuthnot and Ambrister on 
trial for their lives before a court-martial. The 
former, found guilty of exciting and stirring up 
the Indians to war with the United States, and 
of providing them with means to carry on hos- 
tilities, was sentenced to death. Similar charges 
were preferred against Ambrister, with the addi- 
tional one of affording the savages his personal 
assistance. He, too, was found guilty, and sen- 
tenced to death; but, on reconsideration, this 
sentence was mitigated to stripes on the bare 
back, and imprisonment at hard labour for a 
year. Having reason to believe Ambrister 
quite as guilty as his partner, Jackson disap- 
proving of this modification, took the responsi- 
bility of reinstating the original sentence, and 
ordered both the incendiaries to be executed. 

Shortly subsequent to this affair, Jackson 
received intelligence that the Spaniards of Pen- 



1818.] DISPUTES WITH THE SPANIARDS. 275 

sacola had been instigating, or encouraging at 
least, Indian depredations upon the settlers of 
Alabama. Immediately advancing against that 
place, he was met by a protest from the Spanish 
governor, who declared that he would forcibly 
resist any invasion of the territory under his 
jurisdiction. Jackson pushed forward notwith- 
standing, and the next day entered Pensacola 
unopposed, the governor having taken refuge in 
a fort some six or seven miles below the town. 
But the Americans erecting batt-eries and open- 
ing a cannonade, the garrison of this work final- 
ly capitulated. 

Intelligence of this act reaching Washington 
some seventy days later, the Spanish minister 
warmly protested against it. In reply, Mr. 
Adams, the secretary of state, declared that, 
though Jackson had acted without orders, yet, 
considering the aid and encouragement afforded 
by the forts of St. Mark's and Pensacola to 
hostile savages, notwithstanding the existence 
of treaty obligations binding the Spanish au- 
thorities to restrain the Indians under their ju- 
risdiction, the general was abundantly justified 
in all that he had done. Still as the Seminoles 
were now defeated, the United States offered to 
restore Pensacola immediately, and St. Mark's 
whenever Spain should have there sufficient 
troops to keep in check the surrounding Indians. 

While negotiations were pending on this sub* 



276 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1819. 

ject, and on the complete surrender of the Flori- 
das to the United States, the limits of Tennessee, 
as well as those of Kentucky, were greatly en- 
larged by a cession from the Chickasaw Indians 
of all that territory embraced between the nor- 
thern flow of the Tennessee river and the Mis- 
sissippi. 

In the mean time, the course pursued by Jack- 
son in the late Seminole campaign, from the suc- 
cessful completion of which he presently return- 
ed, became an important topic of public con- 
sideration. 

On the 12th January, 1819, the subject was 
brought before Congress by the report of a ma- 
jority of the military committee of the house, 
expressly condemning the executions of Arbuth- 
not and Ambrister. At the same time a mi- 
nority report, sustained by the administration, 
and regarding the whole matter in a favourable 
light, was introduced by Richard M. Johnson, 
of Kentucky. In a lengthened discussion of 
nearly a month both sides had an opportunity 
of being heard. 

On the one hand, it was maintained " that the 
American government had been the aggressor in 
the whole business ; that the power of Congress 
in the matter of making war had been usurped 
upon ; that the trials by court-martial were a 
mere mockery, since the parties were not liable 
to trial in that way ; and that the execution of 



J 



1819.] DISCUSSION IN CONGRESS. 277 

the British and Indian prisoners was in every 
respect unjustifiable." 

On the other hand, "it was urged, as an 
apology for the executions, that as the Indians 
kill their captives, it was but a just retaliation 
to kill Indian captives; nor could white men, 
fighting on the Indian side, expect any better 
treatment than the Indians themselves. Harri- 
son, of Ohio, vindicated Jackson's course except 
in executing Ambrister, which he thought irregu- 
lar, as not sustained by the sentence of the 
court." 

At length, after an ineffectual effort to indefi- 
nitely postpone the whole subject — an effort 
which Jackson's friends in no way seconded — 
the vote stood, for disapproving the executions 
of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, sixty-two to one 
hundred and three ; and for disapproving the 
seizure of Pensacola and St. Mark's, seventy to 
one hundred. 

Notwithstanding this triumph of the general's 
friends in the popular branch of the national 
legislature, an attempt was made in the Senate, 
about a fortnight later, to condemn his conduct 
in the Seminole campaign as a most reprehen- 
sible usurpation of authority. But the report 
containing this condemnation was suffered to 
lie on the table without action. 

In whatever light the energetic proceedings 
of Jackson may now be regarded, one thing is 
24 



278 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1821. 

scarcely to be doubted — their good effect in 
bringing Spain to some definite action with re- 
gard to the cession of the Floridas — a cession 
hitherto vainly applied for, and which was deem- 
ed extremely necessary for the safety and repose 
of the adjoining States. While the general's 
conduct was being debated in Congress, the 
Spanish minister, newly instructed by his go- 
vernment, had at length signed a treaty by 
which the Floridas were to be surrendered to the 
United States, in consideration of their dis- 
charging certain claims, amounting to five mil- 
lions of dollars, brought by American citizens 
against Spain. Though immediately ratified 
by the Senate, this treaty, was not fully ar- 
ranged and completed, by the consent of both 
parties, until the 18th of February, 1821. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



Statistics of Tennessee according to the census of 1850 — Form 
of government, &c. — Conclusion. 

The state of Tennessee, as at present consti- 
tuted, is bounded on the north by Kentucky and 
Virginia, on the east by North Carolina, from 
which it is separated by the Alleghany moun- 
tains ; on the south by Georgia, Alabama, and 
Mississippi ; and on the west by the Mississippi 



1850.] STATISTICS. 279 

river, which divides it from Arkansas and Mis- 
souri. It lies between 35° and 36° 36' north 
latitude, and between 81° 40' and 90° 15' west 
longitude, and includes an area of twenty-nine 
million one hundred and eighty-four acres, of 
which, according to the census of 1850, only five 
million one hundred and seventy-five thousand 
are as yet under cultivation. It is divided into 
three sections, commonly designated as East, 
Middle, and West Tennessee, which are subdi- 
vided into seventy-nine counties ; the population 
numbering, by the latest oflScial returns, one 
million two thousand six hundred and twenty- 
five, of whom three hundred and ninety-two 
thousand two hundred and fourteen were white 
males, three hundred and seventy-four thousand 
five hundred and thirty-nine white females, three 
thousand one hundred and eight free coloured 
males, three thousand two hundred and ninety- 
three coloured females ; one hundred and eighteen 
thousand seven hundred and eighty male and 
one hundred and twenty thousand six hundred 
and eighty female slaves. The representative 
population being nine hundred and six thouaand 
eight hundred and thirty. 

The agricultural products have been estimated 
at 52,276 bushels of Indian corn; 7,703,086 of 
oats; 1,619,381 of wheat; 89,163 of rye; 
1,067,841 of Irish, and 2,777,716 of sweet po- 
tatoes; 369,321 of peas and beans; 14,214 of 



280 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1850. 

grass seed; 18,906 of flax seed; 20,148,932 
pounds of tobacco; 8,139,585 of butter; 77,- 
812,800 of cotton; 1,364,378 of wool; 1,036,- 
571 of beeswax and honey; 177,680 pounds of 
cheese; 368,131 of flax; 248,000 of cane, and 
158,557 of maple sugar; 258,854 of rice, and 
74,092 tons of hay. The live stock valued at 
$29,978,016; market goods $97,183; orchard 
products $52,894; and slaughtered animals 
$6,401,765. 

There were in 1850, 2789 manufacturing es- 
tablishments in the State, each producing $500 
and upward annually. Among these were 33 
cotton factories, with a capital amounting in the 
aggregate to $669,600, employing 310 male and 
580 female operatives; consuming raw material 
worth $297,500, and manufacturing 363,250 
yards of stuff's, and 2,326,250 pounds of yarn, 
the total value of which was $510,624. Four 
woollen establishments, with a capital of $10,900, 
gave employment to 15 males and two females, 
consumed raw material to the value of $1675, 
and fabricated 2220 hats worth $6310. Eighty- 
one furnaces and forges, with $1,915,950 capital 
and 2705 male hands, consumed raw material 
worth $730,551, and produced 44,152 tons of 
wrought, cast, and pig iron, the gross value of 
which was $1,611,043. In breweries and dis- 
tilleries there was invested a capital of $66,125, 
giving employment to 159 hands, consuming 



1850.] STATISTICS. 281 

3000 bushels of barley, 258,400 of corn, and 
5480 of rye, and producing 657,000 gallons of 
whisky, wine, &c. Of tanneries there was 
found to be 364, employing $490,320 capital, 
consuming raw material worth $396,159, and 
producing leather to the value of $746,484. 
In addition to these the value of home-made 
manufactures was estimated at $3,137,810 — the 
highest in the Union. 

The exports of Tennessee are principally live 
stock, pork, bacon, lard, butter, ginseng, cotton 
bagging, flour, Indian corn, fruits, tobacco, cot- 
ton, hemp, feathers, and saltpetre. The foreign 
imports of 1852 amounted to $252,504. 

It has been seen that Tennessee at an early 
day provided liberally for the support of educa- 
tion. In 1850 there were nine colleges in the 
State, with an aggregate of 551 students, and 
libraries containing 27,056 volumes. There was 
also one theological school with 24 students, one 
law school with 56, and two medical schools with 
590. The number of children in the State was 
288,454, of public schools 2713, and 278 acade- 
mies. The school fund amounted to 1,321,655, 
the annual expenditure being $114,718. The 
number of books in the various school libraries 
amounted to 5100 volumes. 

There were in 1850 no less than 1939 churches 
in the State, 831 of which belong to the Metho- 
dists, 611 to the Baptists, 357 to the Presbyte- 

24* 



282 HISTORY OF TENNESSEE. [1850. 

rians, 57 to the sect of Christians, 28 to the 
Free Church, 17 to the Episcopalians, 15 to the 
Union Church, 12 to the Lutherans, and 3 to the 
Roman Catholics. The remaining churches be- 
longed to the Friends, the Protestant Evangeli- 
cal, the Tunkers, and the Africans — making one 
church to every 517 inhabitants. The gross 
value of the church property was $1,208,276. 

The public institutions consisted of 21 libra- 
ries, with an aggregate of 47,356 volumes; a 
State Penitentiary at Nashville, the present 
capital; and a Deaf and Dumb Asylum at 
Knoxville. 

Under the constitution of Tennessee the go- 
vernor is elected for two years by the popular 
vote, his salary being fixed at $2000 per annum. 
The Senate consists of twenty-five and the 
House of Representatives of seventy-five mem- 
bers, both elected by the people for two years. 
The Judiciary consists of a Supreme Court, 
presided over by three judges, elected for twelve 
years by a joint vote of the two houses of 
the legislature ; of a Court of Chancery, pre- 
sided over by four chancellors ; and of fourteen 
Circuit Courts, presided over by as many 
judges. The judges of the inferior courts 
are elected by the legislature for eight years. 
Davidson county, in which the capital of the 
State is seated, has a special criminal court, 
and the city of Memphis has a Common Law 



1850.] STATISTICS. 283 

and Chancery court. The salaries of the 
judges range from $1500 to $1800. 

The actual State debt of Tennessee, in Ja- 
nuary, 1853, was $3,901,856.66; loan debt, 
$915,000; endorsed debt, $675,000— total, 
$5,491,856.66. 

On the other hand the State was in possession 
of a school fund, amounting to $1,346,068, of 
productive property valued at $4,837,840, and 
of unproductive property worth $1,101,390. 
The annual expenses of the State, exclusive of 
the interest upon the public debt and the charge 
for educational purposes, did not much exceed 
$165,000. 

In January, 1853, the aggregate capital of 
twenty-three banks chartered by the State, was 
$8,405,197; the circulation, $5,300,000; and 
the amount of coin in the vaults of the different 
institutions, $1,900,000. 

Though prevented by their geographical posi- 
tion from engaging in those profitable commercial 
enterprises which have tended so largely to in- 
crease the wealth of the people inhabiting the At- 
lantic borders, the citizens of Tennessee have 
sought and found the means of prosperity on their 
own soil. Possessing immense tracts of fertile 
land, w^ater power in abundance, navigable rivers 
which drain an area of forty-one thousand square 
miles, abundance of coal and other fuel for 
manufacturing purposes, a climate so various as 



284 HISTORY OP TENNESSEE. [1850. 

to ripen in equal perfection tlie cereals of the 
North and the cotton of the South, they have 
already become the first State of the Union in 
the value of their domestic manufactures, the 
fourth in the production of tobacco, and the 
fifth in the scale of population. 



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